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AUTHOR: 


TUCKER,  GEORGE 


TITLE: 


A  DISCOURSE  ON 
THE  PROGRESS.. 


PLACE: 


RICHMOND 


DA  TE : 


1853 


} 


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Tucker,  George  1775-1861 

A  discourse  on  the  progress  of  philosophy 
and  its  influence  on  the  intellectual  and  moral  cliaracter 
of  man,  delivered  before  the  Virginia  historical  and  phil- 
osophical society,  February  5,  1835 


•  •  • 


Richmond     1835 


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A  DISCOURSE 


ON  TUB 


PROGRESS  OF  PHILOSOPHY, 


AND  ITS  INFLUENCE   ON   THE 


INTELLECTUAL  AND  MORAL  CHARACTER  OF  MAN ; 


DELIVERED   BEFORE  THE  VIRGINIA 


HISTORICAL  AND  PHILOSOPHICAL  SOCIETY, 


FEBRUARY  5,  1835; 


BY   GEORGE   TUCKER, 

Professor  of  Moral  Philosophy  in  the  Unirersity  of  Virginia. 


Originally  published  in  the  Southern.  lAterary  Messenger. 


RICH|IOND : 


PRINTED   BY   T.  W.  WHITE,  ^PPOSITB  THE  BELL  TAVERN. 


1835. 


A  DISCOURSE 


ON   THE 


PROGRESS  OF  PHILOSOPHY, 


AND    ITS   INFLUENCE   ON    THE 


INTKLLKCTUAL  AND  MORAL  CHARACTER  OF  MAN; 


DELIVERED    BEFORE  THE   VIRGINIA 


HISTORICAL  AND  PHILOSOPHICAL  SOCIETY, 


FEBRUARY  5,  1835 ; 


BY   GEORGE   TUCKER, 

Professor  of  Moral  Philosophy  in  the  University  of  Virginia. 


Originally  published  in  the  Southern  Idterary  Messenger. 


RICHMOND : 

i 

PRINTED   BY   T.  W.  WHITE,  OPPOSITE  THU  BULL  TAVBRK. 


1835. 


'\m  "' 


DISCOURSE  ON  PHILOSOPHY. 


A  DISCOURSE 

On  the  Progreas  of  Philosophy,  and  its  Influence  on  the  Intel- 
lectual and  Moral  Character  of  Man ;  delivered  before  the 
Virginia  Historical  and  Philosophical  Society,  February  3, 
1835.  By  George  Tucker,  Professor  of  Moral  Philosophy  in 
the  University  of  Virginia. 

ATr.  President,  arid 

Gentlemen  of  the  Society  : — 

I  FEEL  (he  weight  of  the  task  I  have  underta- 
ken to  perform,  the  more  sensibly,  when  T  recol- 
lect the  brilliant  qualifications  of  the  member* 
who  was  the  first  choice  of  the  society,  and  that  1 
must  disappoint  the  expectations  which  that  choice 
so  naturally  raised.  The  grave  and  sober  specu- 
lations which  I  am  about  to  sul)mit  to  your  consi- 
deration will,  I  fear,  but  poorly  compensate  those 
who  hear  me,  for  the  graces  of  elocution,  the  rich, 
but  chaste  imagery,  and  the  rare  felicity  of  dic- 
tion by  which  that  gentleman  is  distinguished; 
and  I  regret  on  your  account,  as  well  as  my  own, 
that  he  has  thus  unexpectedly  failed  to  fulfil  the 
wishes  of  his  associates. 

F  have  thought  it  would  not  be  unappropriate  lo 
the  occasion,  to  present  to  the  society  some  views 
of  the  influence  which  philosophy  has  exercised, 
and  must  continue  to  exercise,  over  civilized  man. 
Amidst  the  din  of  political  controversy,  and  the 
hustling  concerns  of  life,  it  is  well  sometimes  to 
withdraw  our  thoughts  from  the  tumultuous  scenes 
around  us  to  the  calm  views  of  rational  specula- 
tion. Our  minds  may  be  not  merely  refreshed  by 
the  cliange,  but  they  are  likely  to  acquire  eleva- 
tion and  purity  in  being  thus  severed  from  sordid 
and  selfish  pursuits,  and  made  to  contemplate  hu- 
man concerns  in  the  transparent  medium  of  truth 
and  philosophy. 

Philosophy !  a  term  to  which  some  attach  a 
mysterious  import,  as  implying  a  kind  of  know- 
ledge unattainable  except  by  a  few  gifted  minds — 
whilst  others  regard  it  as  more  an  object  of  aver- 
sion than  of  affection, — inculcating  a  system  of 
thought  and  action  equally  at  war  with  nature  and 
common  sense, — as  a  perversion  of  human  reason 
and  feeling,  at  once  cold  and  repulsive  to  others, 
and  profitless  to  the  possessor.  This  is  not  the 
philosophy  of  which  I  propose  to  speak,  but  her 
counterfeit ;  which,  being  as  bold  and  forward  as 
the  other  is  modest  and  retiring,  has  made  herself 
more  known  to  the  world  than  the  character  she 
personates,  and  has  thus  brought  discredit  on  the 
name. 

By  philosophy,  I  mean  that  power  of  perceiv- 
ing truths  which  are  not  obvious — of  seeing  the 
complicated  relations  of  things,  and  of  seeing  them 
as  they  really  are,  unperverted  by  passion  or  pre- 
judice. So  far  from  being  repugnant  to  nature 
and  common  sense,  it  constantly  appeals  to  these 
lor  the  justness  of  its  precepts.     It  is  indeed  Hea- 


♦  James  McDowell,  Eaq.  of  Rockbridge. 


soUj  exercising  its  highest  attributes  in  the  multi- 
farious concerns  of  human  life.  Such  was  the 
philosophy  of  Newton  and  Locke,  and  of  our  own 
illustrious  Franklin. 

It  will  be  the  object  of  the  following  remarks  to 
show,  that  this  philosophy  is  gradually  increasing 
and  diffusing  itself  over  the  world ;  that  it  now 
mingles  in  all  human  concerns,  and  gives  to  the 
present  age  its  distinguishing  characteristics  ;  that 
its  progress  must  still  continue,  and  more  and  more 
influence  the  character  of  man  and  civilized  socie- 
ty ;  and  that  in  no  country  is  its  influence  likely  to 
be  more  extensively  or  beneficently  felt  than  in  this. 

The  most  superficial  observer  must  be  struck 
with  the  prodigious  advancement  of  the  human  in- 
tellect, when  he  compares  the  opposite  extremes 
of  society.  The  savage,  when  his  mind  is  roused 
from  a  state  of  apathy,  passes  into  one  of  strong 
emotion;  for  he  is  cajjable  of  intense  feelings,  but 
not  of  profound  and  comprehensive  thought.  He 
knows  but  few  facts ;  and  they  have  not  that  va- 
riety and  complexity  which  distinguish  the  know- 
ledge of  the  civilized  man.  All  that  he  sees  and 
hears,  is  heard  and  seen  by  the  men  of  civilization ; 
but  to  this  the  latter  is  always  adding  the  percep- 
tion of  new  and  intricate  relations,  of  which  the 
former  is  incapable.  Thus,  compare  the  know- 
ledge of  the  relations  of  numbers  possessed  by  one 
who  barely  knows  how  many  fives  there  are  in 
twenty,  with  that  of  him  who  can  mark  out  the 
paths  of  the  planets,  calculate  their  mutual  attrac- 
tions, and  predict  a  distant  eclipse  t6  a  minute ;  or 
the  few  and  simple  rules  of  justice  among  a  tribe 
of  savages,  to  the  intricate  and  multifarious  codes 
of  civilized  society;  nay,  extend  the  comparison 
to  any  other  department  of  human  knowledge,  and 
there  will  be  found  the  same  difference  between 
the  two,  as  exists  between  the  wigwam  of  mud  or 
bark,  without  a  door,  window  or  chimney,  and  the 
solid  and  spacious  hall  in  which  we  are  assembled. 
Nor  is  this  all ;  for  as  the  reason,  in  common  with 
every  other  faculty,  is  strengthened  by  exercise, 
the  severer  and  more  incessant  exercise  to  which 
it  is  subjected  by  the  multiplication  of  new  rela- 
tions, is  constantly  increasing  the  authority  of  ^ 
reason,  and  weakening  tlie  dominion  of  the  pas- 
sions and  prejudices. 

The  mind  therefore  becomes,  with  the  progress 
of  civilization,  more  capable  of  perceiving  rela- 
tions— more  imbued  with  a  knowledge  of  these 
relations — more  comprehensive — more  capable  of 
making  remote  deductions.  It  perceives  more 
truths  that  are  complex  and  difficult — and  has  more 
capacity  to  detect  illusion  and  error.  We  thus 
see  human  reason  gradually  extending  its  em- 
pire, successfully  assailing  former  prejudice,  and 
fashioning  human  institutions  to  purposes  of  utili- 
ty. We  see  men  more  and  more  inclined  to  value 
every  object  only  in  proportion  as  it  conduces  to 
the  happiness  of  the  greater  number ;  and  to  con. 


DISCOURSE  ON  PHILOSOPHY. 


DISCOURSE  ON  PHILOSOPHY. 


aider  nothing  as  permanently  connected  with  that 
bappinesp,  but  what  gives  gratification  to  the 
senses  without  debasing  them;  to  the  intellect 
without  misleading  it;  and  to  the  passions  when 
fulfilling  their  legitimate  objects.  It  is  thus  we 
see  each  succeedbg  generation  regarding  with  in- 
difference, and  even  with  contemptuous  ridicule, 
what  commanded  4he  veneration  of  a  former  age. 

It  would  exceed  the  limits  of  such  a  discourse 
as  the  present  to  give  even  an  outline  of  the  ad- 
vancement of  reason,  as  exhibited  in  the  vatious 
branches  of  science.  Nor  is  it  necessary.  It  will 
be  sufficient  for  us  to  give  our  attention  to  some 
few  striking  facts  in  the  progress  of  science  and 
art,  especially  in  those  cases  which  being  iiwrc  re- 
cent, are  at  once  better  known  to  us,  and  have  a 
nearer  relation  to  our  interests.  Let  us  turn  to 
any  department  of  human  knowledge  or  inquiry, 
and  we  see  the  clearest  manifestations  of  the  grow- 
ing philosophical  spirit  of  which  I  speak. 
1^  If  we  look  at  the  character  of  civil  government, 
we  find  that  every  revolution — every  im|iortant 
change — is  the  result  of  the  progress  of  philoso- 
phy— of  the  extension  of  the  empire  of  reason. 
Once  kings  were  regarded  as  deriving  their  pow- 
er not  from  the  consent  of  the  people,  but  imme- 
diately from  the  Deity.  They  were  said  to  be  the 
Lord's  anointed ;  and  implicit  obedience — unresist- 
ing submission  to  the  mandate  of  the  sovereign, 
was  enjoined  not  merely  as  a  civil,  but  as  a  reli- 
gious duty. 

In  two  out  of  the  four  quarters  of  the  world,  we 
all  know  how  much  these  opinions  are  changed ; 
and  that  there,  with  the  thinking  portion  at  least, 
government  is  now  regarded  as  an  institution  cre- 
ated solely  for  the  happiness  of  the  people ;  that 
they  are  the  judges  of  what  constitutes  that  happi- 
ness ;  and  that  government  may  be  changed,  either 
as  to  its  form  or  agents,  whenever  it  is  proved  in- 
capable of  fulfilling  its  main  purpose.     This  prin- 
ciple of  reason  and  common  sense  caused  and  jus- 
tified the  establishment  of  the  Commonwealth  in 
England;  the  restoration  of  the  monarchy;  the 
subsequent  revolution  in  1688;  the  American  re- 
volution in  1776 ;  the  French  revolution  of  1789, 
under  all  its  various  phases;  and  that  which  pro- 
duced a  change  of  dynasty  in  1830.     We  have 
seen  the  operation  of  the  same  principle  in  sepa- 
rating the  Spanish  provinces  on  this  continent 
from  the  mother  country.     We  have  seen  it  in  the 
separation  of  Belgium  from  Holland,  and  in  the 
liberation  of  Greece  from  the  Turkish  yoke. 
1^     Every  subordinate  institution  too,  is  now  judgetl 
according  as  it  tends  to  promote  the  welfare  of  the 
community ;  and  the  notion  of  rights  of  particu- 
lar classes  and  orders  of  men,  fiirther  than  they 
can  be  shown  to  rest  on  this  foundation,  is  deemed 
presumptuous  and  absurd.     Even   the  rights  of 
property  itself,  the  most  sacred  of  any,  because 
they  are  the  most  obvious  and  are  possessed  by  a 


greater  number,  are  derived  from  the  same  source, 
and  are  regulated  and  controlled  by  it.     Every 
tax  in  a  popular  government — every  restriction  on 
the  free  use  of  one's  own, — whether  it  be  in  the 
form  of  a  prohibition  against  gaming,  or  of  laying 
out  a  new  road,  or  of  an  inspection  law,  recog- 
nizes this   principle.     It  governs  legislatures  in 
conferring  rights  as  well  as  abridging  them.  They 
all  find  their  authority  and  justification  in  the  pub- 
lic good ;  nor  does  any  one  now  attempt  to  resist  a 
tax  or  defend  a  privilege,  but  by  appealing  to  this 
great  test  of  right,  the  interests  of  the  community. 
You  see  too  in  jurisprudence,  that  all  those 
principles  which  grow  out  of  barbarous  usages,  or 
were  the  result  of  accident,  or  of  mistaken  theory, 
are  gradually  made  to  give  way  to  the  light  of 
reason  and  the  spirit  of  philosophy.     They  con- 
form more  and  more  to  the  common  sense  and 
common  feelings  of  mankind.     Crimes  which  once 
incurred  the  severest  penalties  of  the  law,  are  crimes 
no  longer;  modes  of  trial  originating  in  supersti- 
tion have  been  abolished;  many  of  the  frivolous 
niceties  of  pleading,  or  rules  founded  on  a  state  of 
things  which  no  longer  exist — such  as  that  which 
excluded  written  testimony  from  the  common  law 
courts,  and  which,  like  noisome  weeds,  choked  up 
the  administration  of  justice,  have  been  eradicated, 
in  spite  of  the  cry  which  always  will  be  raised 
against  innovation,  and  which  some  of  our  best 
principles,  as  well  as  our  weakest  prejudices,  con- 
cur in  raising. 

Nor  have  we  yet  reached  the  end  of  this  course 
of  salutary  reform.    The  administration  of  justice 
may  be  still  more  simple ;  and  though  the  rules  of 
projierty  and  of  civil  rights  must  always  be  nume- 
rous and  complicated  in  a  civilized  community, 
yet  this  necessity  furnishes  a  further  reason  why 
the  modes  of  investigating  truth  and  the  rules  of 
evidence  should  possess  all  practicable  simplicity. 
Tlie  spirit  of  philosophy  has  been  actively  at  work 
here.     In  some  instances,  perhaps,  it  has  been  too 
far  in  advance  of  the  age,  and  under  the  influence 
of  the  pride  of  discovery  and  reform,  or  provoked 
by  opposition,  it  may  have  been  urged  farther  than 
reason  and  propriety  would  warrant.   It  has,  how- 
ever, arraigned  the  whole  system  of  judicial  evi- 
dence, and  endeavored  to  show  that  the  rules  for 
the  examination  of  contested  facts  are  so  errone- 
ous or  defective,  that  the  truth  is  commonly  disco- 
vered better  out  of  court  than  in  it;  and  that 
questions  about  which  all  the  world  is  satisfied, 
when  technically  examined  by  tribunals  created 
purposely  for  their  investigation,  either  receive  no 
answer,  or  a  wrong  one.   The  official  expounders 
of  the  law,  partaking  of  the  liberal  spirit  of  the 
age,  have  of  late  years  greatly  narrowed  the  ob- 
jections to  the  competency  of  witnesses;  but  it  is 
only  the  legislature  and  public  opinion  which  are 
adequate  to  a  complete  reform,  and  they  will  one 
day  assuredly  bring  it. 


There  is  much  seeming  force  in  many  of  the 
other  objections  of  the  reformers  to  the  present 
very  artificial  and  complicated  system  of  jurispru- 
dence; but  whether  their  views  are  satisfactory 
or  otherwise,  they  equally  serve  to  show  the  pre- 
valent disposition  of  men  to  bring  all  human  con- 
cerns to  the  bar  of  reason,  and  make  them  submit 
to  her  decrees. 

There  is  nothing  in  which  the  progress  of  rea- 
son and  philosophy  are  more  shown,  than  in  the 
subject  of  religion.  A  large  part,  perhaps  I  may 
say,  the  best  part  of  religion, as  it  is  most  produc- 
tive of  good  results,  is  the  religion  of  the  heart; 
and  consists  in  a  profound  and  thorough  sense  of 
the  wisdom  and  beneficence  of  the  Creator— of 
thanksgiving  for  the  blessings  he  has  vouchsafed 
to  frail  and  humble  beings  like  ourselves — to^igo- 
rous  self-examinations  by  our  own  conscience— 
to  fervent  aspirations  after  moral  excellence  in 
this  life,  and  a  purer  and  higher  state  of  existence 
hereafter.  But  all  of  these  are  impulses  of  the 
feelings,  rather  than  the  cold  dictates  of  the  rea- 
soning faculty;  and  being  dependant  on  the  laws 
of  our  emotions,  which  are  as  unchangeable  as  our 
forms,  and  probably  as  much  the  result  of  organi- 
zation, are  the  same  in  character,  if  not  in  degree, 
in  every  stage  of  society. 

But  while  philosophy  has  not  altered,  and  could 
not  alter  these  impulses  of  the  heart,  we  may  see 
here  also  its  benignant  operations.     It  has  driven 
away  from  religion  the  superstitions  which  fraud 
'  and  credulity  combined  had   gathered  around  it. 
Man  no  longer  imputes  to  the  Deity  the  same  vio- 
lent and  ignoble  passions  by  which  the  baser  part 
of  his  own  nature  is  agitated ;  and  instead  of  regard- 
ing cruelty  and  vengeance  as  attributes  of  the  Su- 
preme Being,  he  is  invested  with  those  qualities 
which  appear  to  our  feeble  conceptions  more  con- 
sonant with  divine  perfection.     Thus  mercy  to 
human  frailty  and  pity  for  human  suffering,  are 
regarded  as  divine  attributes  no  less  than  wisdom 
and  power.     On  the  part  of  its  votaries,  humility 
is  invoked  to  take  the  place  of  pride  ;  forgiveness 
of  injuries  to  supersede  resentment ;  meekness  and 
patience  and  long  suffering  are  held  to  indicate  a 
truer  devotion  than  pompous  rites  and  vain  cere- 
monies;  and  instead  of  incense  and  sacrifices, 
good  deeds  to  his  fellow  mortals,  and  a  lowly  and 
penitent  spirit,  are  deemed  the  most  acceptable  of- 
ferings which  man  can  make  to  his  Creator.     In 
this  transformation,  Mr.  President,  you  recognize 
the  leading  precepts  of  Christianity,  which  may 
well  be  called  the  most  philosophical  of  all  reli- 
gions. 

It  is  true  that  afler  this  religion  became  the 
creed  of  those  northern  barbarians,  who  poured 
like  an  avalanche  over  the  south  of  Europe,  Chris- 
tianity became  greatly  perverted  from  its  original 
simplicity  and  purity ;  but  it  was  not  destined  to 
remain  forever  shrouded  in  these  mists  of  barba- 


rism. Afler  the  growing  spirit  of  philosophy  pre- 
pared men's  minds  for  its  reception  and  welcome,  it 
broke  forth  in  its  pristine  beauty  and  splendor. 
The  further  continuance  of  the  abuses  of  the  chris- 
tian church  was  inconsistent  with  the  increase  of 
general  intelligence;  and  the  reformation  must 
have  taken  place  had  Martin  Luther  never  exist- 
ed, or  had  the  Dominican  friars  never  carried  on 
the  traffic  in  indulgences;  though  it  might  not 
have  happened  at  the  precise  time,  or  in  the  precise 
manner  in  which  it  did  occur. 

In  truth,  man's  religion,  as  well  as  every  thing 
else  relative  to  his  opinions  and  feelings,  partakes 
of  the  character  of  the  age;  and  we  are  warrant- 
ed in  saying,  that  the  christian  religion  in  the  mid- 
dle ages  must  as  necessarily  have  been  subject  to 
its  corruptions,  its  superstitions,  and  its  persecu- 
tions, among  a  people  so  rude  as  that  which  then 
swayed  the  destinies  of  Europe,  as  that  after  the 
discovery  of  the  art  of  printing,  the  revival  of  let- 
ters, and  the  general  progress  of  science  and  phi- 
losophy, these  foul  exhalations  should  disappear. 

It  has  been  supposed,  that  the  spirit  of  philoso- 
phy which  has  been  so  hostile  to  superstition,  is 
also  unfavorable  to  true  religion ;  and  many,  list- 
ening to  their  fears  rather  than  their  reason,  have 
readily  yielded  to  that  opinion.  But  they  have  been 
too  hasty  in  drawing  general  conclusions  from  par- 
ticular facts.     It  is  true  that  many  of  the  philoso- 
phers of  France,  and  some  of  those  of  Great  Bri- 
tain, during  the  last  century,  were  not  only  op- 
posed to  the  prevailing  creeds  of  their  country, 
but  seemed  to  have  no  very  fervid  religious  feel- 
ings of  any  kind;  but  they  were  led  first  to  make 
war  on  what  they  regarded  as  the  abuses  of  reli- 
gion, and  then  their  attacks  appear  to  be  levelled 
against  every  thing  which  bore  its  name.     It  is 
highly  probable  that,  by  a  natural  process  of  the 
mFnd,  from   coming  to  hate  the  corruptions  of 
Christianity,  they  felt  a  prejudice  against  every 
thing  which  was  associated  with  it.     But  on  the 
other  hand,  we  have  seen  some,  occupying  the  very 
highest  places  in  the  scale  of  philosophers,  who 
were  sincere  and  zealous  christians.     Besides,  the 
present  age,  which  is  the  most  philosophical  the 
world  has  ever  seen,  is  also  the  most  generally  and 
ardently  devoted  to  Christianity,  as  is  evinced  by 
the  extraordinary  number  of  Churches,  Bible  So- 
cieties, Missionary  Societies,  Sunday  Schools,  &c. 
Let  then  the  sincerely  devout  and  i)ious  dismiss 
their  fears.     The  foundations  of  religion  are  seat- 
ed in  the  very  nature  and  constitution  of  man  ;  in 
the  deepest  recesses  of  his  heart.     It  is  a  want  of 
his  moral  nature,  as  indispensable  as  food  to  his 
physical ;  and  philosophy  tends  only  to  separate  it 
from  a  part  of  the  dross  with  which  every  thing 
earthly  more  or  less  mingles,  and  to  leave  its  own 
pure  essence  undiminished  and  untouched. 

Let  us  now  pass  to  the  subject  of  hterature,' 
where  we  shall  see  the  same  evidences  of  the 


DISCOURSE  ON  PHILOSOPHY. 


DISCOURSE  ON  PHILOSOPHY. 


1 


growing  influence  of  philosophy  and  reason  over 
the  minds  of  men.  Thus  poetry,  in  its  efforts  to 
pletM  and  elevale  the  mind, 'Cy  exciting  the  ima- 
gination and  feelings,  now  never  addresses  us  un- 
attended by  philosophy.  Her  favorite  occupation 
of  late  has  been  to  delineate  the  dispositions  and 
characters  of  men;  to  reveal  the  secret  ivorkings 
of  the  passions  and  the  sources  of  human  sympa- 
thy ;  to  exhibit  the  human  mind,  in  short,  under 
its  roost  impressive  phases.  The  prevalent  ta^te 
of  the  age  is  for  metaphysical  poetry ;  by  which  I 
mean,  poetry  imbued  with  philosophy, — |>oelry 
which  lays  bare  the  anatomy  of  the  human  heart, 
and  discloses  all  the  springs  and  machinery  by 
which  it  is  put  in  play.  Those  who  are  gifled  with 
this  beautiful  talent,  have  conformed  to  the  ruling 
taste,  and  their  success  has  been  proportionate.  It 
is  to  this  circumstance  that  Byron  owes  part  of  his 
popularity  ;  for  in  exhibiting  the  most  subtle  pro- 
cesses of  human  passion,  its  energies  and  its  sus- 
ceptibilities, be  is  superior  to  any  of  his  predeces- 
sors; though  in  the  mere  embellishment  of  smooth 
and  felicitous  diction,  and  of  agreeable  4nd  varied 
rhythm,  or  even  in  the  higher  attributes  of  lively 
imagery  and  lofty  conception,  he  can  boast  of  no  su- 
periority. Perhaps  it  would  be  more  correct  to  say, 
that  the  metaphysical  character  of  his  poetry  pro- 
ceeded not  so  much  from  his  wish  to  adapt  it  to  the 
public  taste,  as  because  he  himself  partook  of  the 
character  of  his  age ;  that  he  wrote  metaphysically 
and  philosophically  because  he  spoke  and  thought 
in  this  way,  and  he  so  spoke  and  thought  from  the 
very  same  causes  as  his  contemporaries. 

This  inference  is  the  more  warranted,  when  we 
find  the  same  tincture  of  philosophy  in  the  poetry 
of  his  contemporaries,— Southey,  Wordsworth, 
Campbell  and  Coleridge.*  Even  Moore  infuses 
into  his  amatory  poems  as  much  philosophy  as  the 
subject  will  admit,  though  it  is  of  the  sensual 
school  of  Epicurus.  Sometimes  we  see  the  spirit 
of  philosophy  controlling  the  poetic  spirit,  as  was 
the  case  with  Shelley,  Coleridge  and  some  others, 
in  whose  ix)elry  the  precepts  of  philosophy  were 
more  obscured  by  the  restraints  of  verso  than  aid- 
ed by  its  ornaments.  It  is  an  unnatural  alliance, 
and  both  the  poetry  and  the  philosophy  are  the 
worse  for  the  union. 

In  other  works  of  imagination,  those  intended  for 
the  stage,  and  in  the  region  of  romance,  we  see  the 
same  proofs  of  the  progress  of  philosophy.  Wal- 
ter Scott's  novels  are,  throughout,  the  same  exhi- 
bitions of  man,  whether  acting,  speaking  or  think- 
ing, which  a  philosopher  would  take.  We  are 
made  to  see,  not  by  the  formality  of  an  instructor, 
or  the  impertinence  of  a  cicerofw,  but  by  the  con- 
summate fidelity  and  skill  of  the  representation, 

t  The  recent  poetry  of  coniinertul  Europe  exhibits  the  same 
psychological  character }  as  for  instance,  that  of  Alfieri  and 
Monte  in  Italy,  of  Odethe  and  Tieck  in  Germany,  and  of  Beran- 
ger  in  France. 


every  motive  and  passion  of  the  actors  laid  open 
to  our  view,  and  in  strict  conformity  to  what  we 
liad  often  previously  observed,  though  we  may  not 
have  made  it  the  special  subject  of  reflection. 
There  never  was  before  so  much  philosophy  taught 
by  one  writer,  or  taught  in  so  pleasing  a  mode,  or 
taught  to  so  many  disciples. 

Such  a  gallery  of  moral  pictures  could  not  have 
been  created  before  the  nineteenth  century ;  and 
though  they  had  been,  they  would  not  have  met 
with  the  same  unbounded  popularity,  but,  like 
Milton's  Paradise  Lost,  would  have  been  in  ad- 
vance of  the  spirit  of  the  age. 

In  the  drama,  the  plays  of  Joanna  Baillie,  and 
of  Byron,  are  the  most  metaphysical  of  all  dra- 
matic productions — so  much  so,  as  to  make  them 
unsuited  either  to  the  tastes  or  ca()acitiesof  a  pro- 
miscuous audience.  The  tragedies  of  Vollaire  are 
of  a  more  philosophical  character  tiian  tliose  of  Ra- 
cine or  Corneille,  and  these  again  more  philosophi- 
cal than  the  earlier  productions  of  the  French 
drama. 

But  it  is  in  history  that  we  most  clearly  per- 
ceive the  spirit  of  tlic  age.  Formerly  it  consisted 
in  little  more  than  a  recital  of  the  actions  of  prin- 
ces, public  or  private ;  and  no  occurrence  in  the 
annals  of  a  nation  was  deemed  worthy  of  comme- 
moration, except  battles  and  conquests,  revolutions 
and  insurrections — with  now  and  then  the  notice 
of  a  plague,  (amine,  earthquake  or  other  general 
calamity.  Now,  however,  the  historian  aims  to 
make  us  acquainted  with  the  progress  of  society 
and  the  arts  of  civilization  ;  with  the  advancement 
or  decline  of  religion,  literature,  laws,  manners, 
commerce — every  thing  indeed,  which  is  connect- 
ed with  the  Ijappiness  or  dignity  of  man  ;  he  does 
this,  not  only  because  he  deems  these  subjects  more 
worthy  the  attention  of  an  enlarged  and  liberal 
mind,  but  also  because  we  can,  from  a  faithful 
narrative  of  these  events,  traced  out  from  their 
causes,  and  to  their  eflects,  learn  the  lessons  of 
wisdom — and  seeing  tlie  approach  of  evil,  be  bet- 
ter able  to  avert  or  mitigate  it.  It  is  in  this  spirit 
that  all  history  must  now  Le  written,  to  be  ap- 
proved or  even  read. 

In  the  study  of  language,  we  perceive  the  same 
evidences  of  our  intellectual  advancement.  By 
arranging  the  elements  of  speech  according  to  the 
physical  organs  employed  in  their  utterance,  great 
light  has  been  thrown  on  etymology,  and  in  this 
way,  aflinities  have  been  traced,  first  among  lan- 
guages, and  through  them  among  nations  appa- 
rently unconnected.  And  as  all  language  consists 
of  signs  of  our  mental  o|)erations,  the  general 
principles  of  grammar  have  been  sought  in  the 
laws  of  the  mind;  while  language  in  turn,  has 
been  sometimes  successfully  invoketl  to  explain 
those  laws;  and  thus  philology  and  mental  philo- 
sophy have  assisted  in  elucidating  each  other. 

This  branch  of  phUosophy  (which  treats  of  our 


mental  Ikcul ties)  has  not  indeed  made  as  much 
progress  as  many  others;  for  it  admits  not  the 
discovery  of  new  facts.     But  neitlicr  Iras  this  been 
stationary.     Great  improvements  have  been  made 
in  analyzing  its  compound  states ;  in  separating  its 
original  from  its  derivative  properties;  in  tracing 
many  seemingly  diverse  operations  to  one  simple 
principle.     To  be  convinced  of  this  improvement, 
we  have  only  to  regard  the  theory  of  associations 
as  it  now  is,  compared  with  the  slight  and  vogue 
notice  of  it  by  Locke ;  or  advert  to  the  opinions 
of  the  same  eminent  man  on  the  foundation  of  mo- 
rals.  He  maintained  that  there  was  no  original  pro- 
pensity in  mankind  to  appBoveone  action  as  ,  irtu- 
ous,  and  another  as  vicious;  and  that  there  waS  no 
practical  principle  which  was  approved  or  con- 
demned by  all  nations.     He  even  denied  that  pa- 
rental affection,  the  strongest  feeling  in  the  mater- 
nal bosom,  was  an  original  feeling.     He  refers  to 
the   inventions    of   travellers   in   support  of  his 
theory,  and  was  as  credulous  of  the  anomalous 
facts  they  related,  as  he  was  skeptical  of  innate 
propensities.    Thus  he  says :  "  It  is  familiar  among 
the  Mingrelians,  a  people  professing  Christianity, 
to  bury  their  children  alive  without  scruple;  he 
asserts  that  the  Caribbees  were  wont  to  fat  and  eat 
their  own  children ;"  and  that  a  people  of  Peru  who 
followed  this  practice,  used,  when  by  the  course  of 
nature  they  no  longer  had  a  prospect  of  more  chil- 
dren to  eat,  "  to  kill  and  eat  the  mothers." 

A  more  intimate  acquaintance  with  the  people 
of  this  globe,  and  juster  modes  of  reasoning,  have 
dissipated  these  illusions;  and  if  I  mistake  not,, 
the  laws  of  the  mind  will,  in  no  distant  day,  be 
traced  with  an  accuracy  and  precision  little  infe 
rior  to  those  which  prevail  in  most  brancheso 
physics. 

In  the  science  of  political  economy  too,  we  see 
the  advance  of  the  light^ofphilosophy.  The  er- 
rors which  were  the  result  of  general  and  deep- 
rooted  prejudices,  have  yielded  to  the  force  of 
reason ;  and  all  enlightened  men  now  agree  that 
nothing  is  so  injurious  to  national  prosperity  as  too 
much  regulation  ;  and  that  the  desire  which  man- 
kind have  to  increase  their  means  of  enjoyment, 
operates  more  unceasingly,  and  sagaciously,  and  be- 
neficially, than  any  schemes  of  the  government, 
however  vigilant,  intelligent  and  free  from  bias ; 
since  governments  at  best  can  operate  only  by 
general  rules,  which  injure  some  in  benefiting 
others,— while  the  sagacity  of  individuals,  with 
few  exceptions,  devises  the  best  rules  for  each  par- 
ticular case. 

It  was  for  philosophy  also  to  discover  the  connec- 
tion between  good  government  and  the  national 
prosperity,  and  that  a  community  will  have  the 
most  industry,  skill  and  thrift,  where  property  is 
best  protected— where  every  one  can  freely  exer- 
cise his  talents  or  his  capital,  and  securely  enjoy 
the  fruits  they  have  yielded.     Philosophy,  or  un- 


prejudiced reason,  if  you  prefer  it,  also  refuted  an 
error  once  prevalent,  that  one  country,  or  one  part 
of  a  country,  was  injured  by  another's  wellare ; 
and  proved  both  by  reasoning  and  example,  that 
every  accession  of  wealth  or  prosperity,  expe- 
rienced by  one  portion,  radiates  light  and  heat  to 
all  around  it. 

If  the  progress  of  philosophy,  or  human  reason, 
has  done  so  much  in  the  moral  sciences,  it  has 
done  yet  more  in  the  physical  branches  of  know- 
ledsre  for  the  material  world — more  invites  our 
attention  and  speculation — is  more  within  the 
reach  of  experiment,  and  the  benefits  it  confers 
are  more  direct  and  obvious.  It  would  be  foreign 
to  my  purpose,  if  I  were  competent  to  the  task,  to 
mark  the  steps  by  which  man  has  passed  from 
conjecture  to  certainty — from  rash  hypothesis  to 
theories  founded  on  cautious  observation  and  ex- 
periment— from  inquiries  which,  if  successful,  had 
only  gratified  curiosity,  to  discoveries  and  im- 
provements immediately  conducive  to  the  benefits 
of  society.  To  enable  us  to  appreciate  the  advance 
of  science,  it  is  sufficient  for  us  to  look  at  what 
the  condition  of  man  now  is,  compared  with  what 

it  was. 

In  whatever  direction  we  turn  our  eyes,  we  be-  I 
hold  some  triumph  of  mind  over  matter.     We  j 
cannot  see  a  ship,  a  book,  a  gun,  a  watch — scarce- 
ly the  commonest  implement  or  utensil — without 
being  made  sensible  of  the  wonders  achieved  by 
human  science  and  art, — the  result  of  the  com- 
bined efforts  of  a  thousand  minds  and  ten  thousand 
hands,  embodied  in  a  form  that  has  added  incal- 
culably to  man's  power  and  enjoyment.     If  we 
take  the  departments  of  knowledge  separately,  we 
are  filled  with  admiration  at  the  labor  by  which  it 
has  climbed,  and  the  elevation   it  has  attained. 
Astronomy,   not  content  with   teaching   us  the 
iiiofioiis  of  the  planets  and  moons  of  our  system, 
and  by  them,  enabling  us  to  traverse  the  pathless 
ocean  with  the  certainty  with  which  we  travel  by 
land — of  itself  a  glorious  achievement  of  science — 
now  undertakes  to  estimate  the  weight  and  density 
of  these  bodies — their  influence  on  one  another — 
of  the  smallest  on  the  largest — the  flight  of  comets, 
and  even  some  of  the  changes  of  position  in  the 
stars  themselves.     Optics  has  taught  us  new  laws 
of  light,  and  has  subjected  the  most  subtle  and  the 
most  rapid   body  in  nature  to  measurements,  of 
as  much  certainty  as  the  gross  portions  of  matter. 
We  now  know  the  weight,  density,  motions,  elas- 
ticity of  the  air  we  breathe,  and  which  encom- 
passes the  earth ;  the  laws  of  sound — its  velocity, 
force,  repercussion,  musical    tone.     By  electri- 
city, magnetism,  galvanism,  are  revealed  to  us 
new  fluidsof  the  existence  of  which  we  did  not  for- 
merly dream.     Their  laws  have  been  investigated 
with  all  the  accuracy,  acuteness  and  unwearied 
diligence  which  belongs  to  modern  science;  and 
though  this  branch  of  physics  is  every  day  re- 


8 


DISCOURSE  ON  PHILOSOPHY. 


DISCOURSE  ON  PHILOSOPHY. 


celTing  new  accessions,  it  already  forms  a  copious 
•cience  of  itself  While  yet  in  the  full  career  of 
discovery,  it  affords  jMjrsuasive  evidence  of  the 
close  affinity  if  not  identity  of  light,  heiit,  mag- 
netisra,  electricity  and  galvanism. 

The  progress  of  chemistry,  shows  us  the  growth 
of  the  human  intellecTnTlts  numerous  useful  re- 
aulU.  In  the  power  it  has  acquired  over  brute 
matter,  it  has  added  infinitely  to  our  means  of 
comfort  or  enjoyment,  by  improving  the  useful 
arts  of  husbandry,  metallurgy,  dying,  bleaching, 
lanning,  brewing  and  medicine.  Some  of  these 
improvements  have,  indeed,  been  the  effect  of  ac- 
cident"; but  many,  nay  the  most  of  them,  have 
been  the  result  of  human  inquiry  and  sagacity. 
And  the  atomic  theory,  which  gives  us  an  insight 
into  some  of  the  primary  laws  of  matter,  is  a  pure 
deduction  of  reason. 

By  chemical  discoveries,  useful  processes  which 
once  required  months,  or  even  years,  are  now  ef- 
fected in  a  few  days.  The  chemist  has  found  means 
to  separate  one  of  several  properties  from  a  drug, 
•o  that  its  medicinal  effect  may  be  undiminished 

jind  unaffected  by  other  twwhiwoii  properties  origi- 
lally^with  it.     Light,  which  formerly  was  fur- 

*nished  only  by  the  valuable  substances  of  wax, 
tallow,  spermaceti  or  oil,  has  been  supplied  o(  a 
better  quality,  from  the  cheajiest  and  most  abun- 
dant objects  in  nature;  and  these  improvements 
are  but  the  precursors  of  the  more  splendid  reti- 
nue which  are  hereafter  destined  to  make  their 
appearance.  This  science  gives  us  assurance  that 
all  those  substances  which  are  most  indispensable 
to  man,  because  they  repair  the  waste  which  is  un- 
ceasingly going  on  in  his  bodily  frame,  are  dis- 
persed in  boundless  profusion  throughout  the  uni- 
verse, but  under  forms  and  combinations  which 
conceal  them  from  our  unassisted  senses ;  and  that 
it  may  be  within  the  scope  of  human  art  to  sepa- 
rate those  which  are  nutritious,  and  assimilate 
with  our  system,  from  those  that  are  of  a  noxious 
or  neutral  character,  and  thus  to  modify  the  law 
which  has  hitherto  limited  the  numbers  of  man- 
kind. It  is  now  thought  whatever  vegetable  sub- 
stances can  l>e  made  soluble  can  be  made  digesti- 
ble, in  proof  of  which,  a  German  chemist*  has 
already  succeeded  in  converting  ligneous  sub- 
stances into  wholesome  aliment ;  and  it  has  long 
been  known  that  sugar  may  be  made  by  a  similar 
chemical  conversion.  What  would  have  been  the 
transmutation  for  which  the  alchemist  of  former 
days  consumed  so  many  anxious  days  and  sleepless 
nights,  compared  v/ith  these.'  Gold  owes  its  extra- 
ordinary value  to  its  scarcity,  and  had  the  adept 
succeeded  in  making  it  at  pleasure,  he  would  have 
lessened  its  value  in  the  same  proportion  as  he  in- 
creased the  quantity.  If  he  could  have  converted 
copper  into  gold,  the  gold  would  have  been  worth 

♦  Professor  Autonrieth  of  Tubingen. 


no  more  than  the  copper,  except  for  the  expense 
of  the  transmutation.  And  if  society  had  gained 
some  advantage  in  lieing  able  to  substitute  it  for 
metals  that  are  liable  to  rust,  yet  it  would  have 
lost  as  much  by  the  destruction  of  its  property  of 
containing  great  value  in  a  small  bulk,  and  its 
consequent  unfitness  to  perform  the  functions  of 
money. 

It  is  not  improbable  that  some  of  these  splendid 
visions  of  science  may  never  be  realized :  but  then 
other  discoveries  and  improvements  may  take 
place  of  equal  and  greater  imjwrtance;  and  should 
those  ho|)es  be  verified,  would  they  exhibit  a 
greater  triumph  of  art  than  has  been  witnessed  in 
our  day  r  they  are  certainly  not  more  beyond  the 
hounds  of  seeming  probability  than  balloons,  and 
diving  bells,  and  rail  roads,  would  have  appeared 
to  a  former  age. 

The  most  extravagant  fiuicy  in  which  the  man 
of  science  has  indulged  would  scarcely  exceed  the 
wonders  now  wrought  by  steam,  whether  we  con- 
sider the  simplicity  of  the  means,  or  the  magnitude 
of  the  results.  When  in  every  vessel  of  heated 
water  mankind  had  always  seen  a  vapor  arise, 
who  could  have  supposed  that  in  this  simple  fact, 
nature  had  furnished  an  agent,  which  by  skilfully 
managing,  he  could  multiply  his  natural  strength 
a  thousand  fold,  and  move  from  place  to  place  with 
the  swiftness  of  a  bird?  By  the  alternate  produc 
tion  and  condensation  of  this  vapor,  which  he  is 
able  to  do  by  the  very  common  agents  of  fire  and 
water,  he  is  able  to  extract  the  ponderous  minerals 
from  the  bowels  of  the  earth,  having  made  it  pre- 
viously drain  off  the  water  which  put  them  out  of 
his  reach.  By  the  same  power  he  fashions  the 
metal  he  has  made,  into  bars,  or  sheets,  or  rods, 
according  to  his  various  purposes.  By  it  he  per- 
forms all  those  operations  which  require  incessant 
action  as  well  as  preterhuman  strength ;  and  thus 
it  is  made  to  spin  and  weave,  to  saw  and  bore  and 
plane.  By  this  he  grinds  his  flour,  cuts  and  pol- 
ishes marble,  prints  newspapers,  and  transtiers  both 
himself  and  his  commodities  from  place  to  place, 
by  land  or  by  water,  with  a  rapidity  which  had 
existed  only  in  the  creations  of  an  eastern  imagi- 
nation ;  and  what  is  no  less  admirable,  with  a  di- 
minution of  fatigue  equal  to  the  increase  of  s|)eeil. 

The  kindred  sciences  of  geology  and  mineralogy 
have  undergone  the  same  improvements  as  that  of 
chemistry.  And  by  a  course  of  inductive  reason- 
ing, founded  on  careful  observation,  the  changes 
which  the  outer  crust  of  our  earth,  to  the  small 
comparative  extent  that  we  are  able  to  penetrate 
it,  have  been  most  satisfactorily  shown,  and  refer- 
red to  their  several  chemical  or  mechanical  agents. 
It  has  also  afforded  data  from  which  important 
facts  in  the  history  of  organized  beings  have  been 
deduced,  and  thus  it  has  shed  a  light  on  a  branch 
of  knowledge  from  which  it  seemed  most  remote. 
The  notion  which  once  prevailed^  that  no  species 


of  animals  is  extinct,  has  been  incontestibly  dis- 
proved ;  and  it  has  shown  not  only  that  there  were 
many  s|)ecies  which  not  only  do  not  now  exist, 
but  which  could  not  subsist  in  the  present  state  of 
the  world.  Where  important  facts  have  not  been 
discovered  by  human  reason,  we  see  its  power 
exerted  in  profiting  by  those  which  accident  has 
suggested ;  as  in  Galvani's  discovery  and  that  of 
Haiiy  in  crystallography,  of  vaccination  and  many 
others. 

Of  all  the  branches  of  human  knowledge  there 
is  no  one  which  sooner  exercised  the  understand- 
ings of  men  than  that  of  medicine,  first  as  a  prac- 
tical art,  and  then  as  a  science,  as  there  is  none  to 
which  he  is  impelled  by  stronger  motives;  and 
accordingly  we  find  it  practised  by  a  separate 
class,  in  some  of  the  rudest  nations.  Yet  long  and 
diligently  as  it  has  been  cultivated,  it  has  made 
prodigious  advances  of  late  years,  and  human  rea- 
son has  here  too  achieved  its  accustomed  triumphs. 
In  the  surgical  branch  diseases  are  cured  every 
day,  often  too  by  young  and  inexperienced  opera- 
tors, that  were  once  deemed  immedicable,  and  often 
proved  fatal.  The  materia  medica  has  been  im- 
proved both  by  happy  accidents,  and  the  scientific 
labors  of  the  chemist — and  the  science,  trustin<'- 
only  to  cautious  observation  and  experiment,  has 
profited  as  much  by  what  it  has  rejected  from  the 
catalogue  of  sanative  remedies,  as  what  it  has 
added.  Reason  has  here  taken  the  place  of  super- 
stition and  blind  credulity,  and  few  prescriptions 
are  now  made  on  purely  empirical  grounds.  W^e 
have  the  most  conclusive  evidence  of  the  advance 
of  the  medical  science,  in  the  greater  average 
length  of  life  now,  compared  with  former  periods. 
It  has  in  England  increased  in  31  years  from  1  in 
33  to  1  in  58.  A  similar  increase  has  been  found 
to  have  taken  place  in  every  nation  of  Europe. 
In  Great  Britain,  France  and  Germany,  the  ave- 
rage increase  has  been  from  1  in  30  to  1  in  38  in 
less  than  two  generations.  And  if  a  part  of  this 
melioration  may  be  attributed  to  the  moral  im- 
provement of  men,  to  the  greater  wealth  and  com- 
fort of  a  greater  number,  the  diminution  of  intem- 
perance and  other  vices,  a  part  also  seems  fairly 
attributable  to  the  medical  science ;  but  in  either 
way  it  attests  the  progress  of  reason  and  philosophy. 

The  progress  of  those  sciences  which  exercise 
no  other  faculty  but  the  reason,  also  attest  the 
increase  and  vigor  of  the  human  faculties.  Al- 
gebra is  not  only  more  generally  cultivated  tlian 
in  a  former  age,  but  it  is  now  applied  to  every 
species  of  regular  form  and  motion  that  matter  can 
assume,  and  has  thus  reached  conclusions  which 
seemed  unattainable  by  human  skill ;  and  the  cal- 
culus which  one  generation  readily  performs,  was 
scarcely  intelligible  to  that  which  preceded  it. 

Even  our  most  familiar  and  household  concerns 
show  the  increased  influence  of  "reason  over  our 
actions.     The  dress  of  both  sexes  is  more  con- 


formable to  nature  than  formerly,  and  less  biassed 
by  caprice  and  arbitrary  or  accidental  forms.  I 
need  only,  by  way  of  proof,  refer  to  hair  iiowder 
and  buckles,  and  the  tight  ligatures  which  once 
bound  our  limbs  or  bodies,  but  bind  them  no 
longer.  Forms  have  been  discarded  or  abridged 
and  made  subservient  to  convenience — our  modes 
of  eating,  drinking  and  sleeping— all  the  ordinary 
habits  of  social  life  prove  the  growing  ascendancy 
of  reason  over  habit  and  prejudice.  Though  in 
all  of  these  we  may  occasionally  see  some  retro- 
grade steps. 

The  more  philosophical  spirit  of  modern,  com- 
pared with  ancient  limes,  is  illustrated  by  what 
was  then  considered  as  the  seven  wonders  of  the 
world.  They  boasted  of  magnitude  or  costliness — 
of  some  enormous  expenditure  of  human  labor 
in  a  pyramid,  a  statue  or  temple,  which  was  fitted 
to  make  a  strong  impression  on  the  senses.  But 
what  are  the  objects  which  now  fill  men's  minds 
with  admiration  and  astonishment.^  They  are  such 
as  are  addressed  to  their  powers  of  reflection — 
great  moral  changes  like  the  American  or  French 
revolutions;  the  liberation  of  Greece  or  of  Span- 
ish America :  or  if  they  be  of  a  physical  character, 
then  they  are  of  some  successful  effort  of  science 
and  art  which  directly  conduces  to  the  benefit  of 
mankind ;  such,  for  instance,  as  the  application  of 
steam  to  manufactures  and  navigation — the  New 
York  Canal,  the  Manchester  Rail  Road,  and  the 
Thames  Tunnel.  These,  and  such  as  these,  are 
the  world's  wonders  in  our  day. 

Such  then,  Mr.  President,  is  the  character  of 
the  changes  which  the  mind  of  man  has  wrought 
on  physical  nature,  as  well  as  in  the  improvement 
of  his  own  condition ;  and  these  in  turn  have  ef- 
fected an  immense  change  in  the  character  of  his 
mind.  lie  has  become  less  svbjected  to  the  dominion  I 
of  his  senses  and  more  to  that  of  his  reason.  He  I 
is  necessarily  made  to  perceive  an  infinite  number 
of  new  and  intricate  relations,  which  the  progress 
of  knowledge  and  civilization  are  ever  adding  to 
those  which  previously  existed,  and  his  reasoning 
faculties  have  acquired  strength  in  proportion  to 
their  exercise.  From  particular  facts  he  is  con- 
tinually deducing  general  laws;  and  from  those 
general  laws,  laws  still  more  comprehensive.  The 
consequence  of  which  is,  that  the  elaborate  deduc- 
tions of  one  age  become  the  obvious  truths  of  that 
which  succeeds  it,  and  each  succeeding  generation 
is  more  capable  of  intricate  processes  of  reasoning 
than  its  predecessor. 

In  the  same  proportion  too,  as  reason  acquires 
strength,  the  dominion  of  the  passions  becomes 
weaker.  They  are  less  likely  to  be  excited  by 
unworthy  causes,  and  less  violent  when  excited. 
Reason  obviously  tends  to  prevent  those  mental 
perturbations  which  arise  from  false  views  of 
things,  as  from  mistaken  notions  of  right — from 
the  exaggerations  of  future  good  or  evil,  and 


ill 


'.5 


10 


DISCOURSE  ON  PHILOSOPHY. 


DISCOURSE  ON  PHILOSOPHY. 


Jl 


wrong  estimates  of  their  probability.  Many  ob- 
jects which  a  more  ignorant  age  has  deemed  im- 
portant, the  light  of  philosophy  exhibits  in  their 
real  insignificance.  And  in  addition  to  all  these 
direct  causes,  it  seems  not  improbable  that  our 
minds  being  now  so  much  more  occupied  in  no- 
ticing causes  and  effects,  and  other  important  re- 
lations, will  be  less  prone  to  strong  emotions, 
except'  80  far  as  they  may  have  the  sanction  of 
reason.  Let  me  not  be  understood  to  favor,  the 
dream  of  some  speculatists,  that  philosophy  will 
ever  eradicate  the  passions.  This  result  is  neither 
possible  nor  desirable.  It  is  in  their  proi^er  in- 
dulgence that  consists  all  that  is  called  either  hap- 
piness or  virtue,  and  all  that  deserves  to  be  so 
considered  by  a  moral  and  intellectual  bemg. 
They  are 

"The  lights  and  shades,  whose  well-accorded  strife 
«  Gives  all  the  strength  and  color  of  our  life." 

The  passions  have  been  aptly  compared  to  the 
winds  which  impel  the  ship  on  the  ocean  of  life,* 


preceded  it :  so  man,  in  his  onward  progress  to  a 
higher  state  of  existence,  does  occasionally  make 
oblique  and  even  retrograde  steps.  By  the  influ- 
ence of  those  prejudices  which  have  not  yet  been 
dislodged  from  their  strong  holds— under  the  sway 
of  our  passions,  which  indeed  may  be  regulated, 
but  can  never  be  extinguished,  reason  for  awhile 
succumbs  and  philosophy  disappears.  Thus,  in 
the  Reformation,  the  struggle  between  those  who 
sought  to  gel  rid  of  the  ancient  abuses,  and  those 
who  endeavored  to  maintain  them,  was  accompa- 
nied with  ferocity,  cruelty  and  injustice  ;  and  men 
were  often  hated  and  persecuted  in  proportion  to 
their  sincerity  in  avowing  their  real  sentiments, 
and  their  firmness  in  maintaining  them.  Then 
too,  we  beheld  those  who  had  been  the  victims  of 
oppression,  when  power  changed  hands, becoming 
persecutors  in  turn;  and  this,  not  on  the  principle 
of  retaliation,  but  because  the  new  persecutors 
were  impelled  by  the  same  blind  fury  as  their 
predecessors,  in  regarding  a  mere  difference  of 


winds  which  impel  me  snip  on  mc  uv-^an  vi  ...-,     opinion  as  synonymous  with  crime. 

but  reason  performs  higher  functions  than  "  the  |  philosophy  had  not  then  advanced  far  enough 

f-ard  "     It  sits  at  the  helm,  and  guides  the  course  Ifo  teach  them  that  men  were  responsible  only  to 


of  the  bark  when  the  gale  is  not  too  strong,  and 
takes  in  sail  when  it  is. 

One  of  the  consequences  of  this  growing  ascen- 
dancy of  reason  is,  that  there  will  be  less  inequality 
in  the  civil  condition  of  mankind;  and  happy  are 
they  whose  political  institutions  enable  them  to 
accommodate  themselves  to  the  change,  without 
going  through  the  process  of  blood  and  violence. 
Whatever  may  be  the  advantages,  real  or  sup- 
posed, of  a  difference  of  ranks,  the  institution 
ori^'inated  in  accident,  and  is  supported  by  illu- 
sions, which  natural  enough  in  a  certain  stage  of 
society,  the  light  of  philosophy  tends  to  dissipate ; 
and  as  ghosts,  witches  and  other  shadows  of  the 
night  have  vanished  at  the  approaching  dawn  of 
reason,  the  further  progress  of  day  will  extinguish 
hereditary  rank,  which,  when  it  does  not,  like 
faux-fire,  shine  by  its  own  corruption,  emits  an 
ineffectual  ray  at  best. 

If  the  preceding  views  are  correct,  it  would 
follow  that  in  our  reasonings  from  the  past  to  the 
future  we  must  take  these  changes  of  the  human 
character  into  account,  and  if  we  do,  that  they 
would  sometimes  lead  us  to  expect  different  re- 
tulU  hereafter  from  those  which  formerly  look 
place  under  similar  circumstances.  The  failure 
to  make  allowance  for  these  changes,  has  produced 
rouch  groundless  apprehension,  much  mistaken  con- 
fidence, and  much  false  vaticination. 

In  thus  speaking  of  the  gradual  progress  of 
reason  and  philosophy,  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that 
the  advancement  is  uninterrupted.  Far  from  it. 
Though  the  tide  may  be  rising,  each  individual 
wave  does  not  always  reach  as  far  as  that  which 

♦  [On  life's  vaat  ocean  dberaely  we  sail, 
Kmsob  the  eard,  \m  paaaioii  if  Um  gal«.}— Pope. 


their  own  conscience  and  their  God  for  their  modes 
of  faith;  and  that  punishment  tended  to  make 
hypocrites  of  the  bad  and  martyrs  of  the  good, 
but  converts  of  none.  They  had  yet  to  learn  that 
the  unadulterated  common  sense  of  that  portion  of 
mankind,  who  were  less  frenzied  by  zeal,  revolted 
at  such  injustice;  and  that  their  sympathies  acted 
more  powerfully  in  favor  of  the  sufferer,  than 
their  fears  in  favor  of  their  persecutors ;  a  truth 
which  has  suggested  the  maxim  that "  the  blood  of 
the  martyrs  is  the  seed  of  the  church." 

The  French  revolution  also  furnished  a  signal 
instance  of  the   retrograde  steps  of  philosophy. 
The  oppressions,  the  injustice,  the  absurdities  of 
the  French  monarchy,  and  above  all,  the  incon- 
gruities of  many  of  its  institutions  with  the  state 
of  knowledge  and  of  private  society  in  France, 
could  not  be  corrected  without  calling  forth  all 
the  strongest  impulses  of  our  nature— the  worst 
passions  of  the  worst  men,  as  well  as  the  nobler 
feelings  of  the  best.     The  advanced  state  of  reason 
and  philosophy  among  the  educated  classes,  acting 
on  the  sense  of  justice,  indelibly  stamped  on  the 
heart  of  man,  made  the  mass  of  the  nation  see  and 
feel  the  odium  of  their  civil  institutions,  and  de- 
termined them  to  attempt  a  remedy.     They  were 
prompted  in  their  schemes,  and  quickened  in  their 
sensibility  by  the  superior  social  condition  of  their 
neighbors,  the   English,  and  yet  more  by   the 
American  revolution   and  its  happy  issue.     Be- 
fore this  great  event,  their  notice  of  the  defects  or 
abuses  of  their  government  was  confined  to  phi- 
losophical speculatists— to  rhetorical  declaimers— 
or  to  those  who  wielded  the  lighter,  but  no  less 
efficient  weajwns  of  ridicule— to  all  of  whom  many 
of  those  cUisses  who  most  profited  by  the  existing 


abuses,  bowing  to  the  resistless  force  of  truth,  and 
not  foreseeing  the  danger  to  themselves,  gave 
their  cordial  support.  Public  opinion  was  thus 
gradually  gaining  strength  and  unanimity ;  and 
when  accident  afforded  a  favorable  occasion  for  the 
reformers  to  act,  every  one  was  astonished  at  the 
rapidity  .and  force  with  which  they  acted.  But 
there  were  strong  interests  and  passions  arrayed 
on  the  other  side,  and  the  shock  of  the  conflict  was 
violent  in  proportion. 

As  soon  as  the  cry  of  reform  and  change  was 
sounded,  every  furious  and  ignoble  passion — every 
sordid  and  profligate  and  depraved  motive,  hoping 
to  profit  by  the  confusion,  entered  into  the  strife, 
and  corrupted  the  whole  mass.  Then  it  was  that 
in  the  heart  of  Christendom,  we  saw  a  city,  asso- 
ciated in  our  minds  with  every  refinement  of 
civilization — the  emporium  of  science,  literature 
and  the  arts — suddenly  transformed  into  a  moral 
desert.  The  annals  of  mankind  had  recorded  no 
such  metamorphosis.  To  the  senses  indeed,  all 
the  monuments  of  science  and  art  and  social  im- 
provement remained,  but  they  seemed  to  belong 
to  other  times.  Every  thing  relative  to  the  hu- 
man character  was  forcibly  overturned,  or  wrest- 
ed from  its  natural  position.  Women  without 
humanity  or  timidity,  at  one  moment  braving 
death,  and  at  another  tliirsting  for  blood.  Science 
and  practical  art  employed  in  devising  new  modes 
of  taking  away  life.  Statesmen  and  legislators 
engrossed  by  the  one  great  subject  of  how  they 
might  exterminate  citizens  no  less  than  foreign 
enemies.  Speculative  minds  racking  their  inven- 
tions to  frame  excuses  for  these  enormities,  or  in 
makins:  frivolous  chan<»;es  in  the  names  of  streets 
and  provinces — of  the  months  and  days — while 
Religion,  finding  nothing  congenial  to  her  own 
mildness  and  purity,  fled  from  the  country,  and 
the  infuriated  multitude  hallooed  and  exulted  in 
her  retreat :  and  in  the  metropolis  of  fashion, 
which  had  given  the  laws  of  dress  to  all  Europe, 
and  one  of  whose  most  distinguished  literati*  had 
asserted  that  the  apparel  was  a  part  of  the  man,  an 
attention  to  outward  appearance  was  deemed  pre- 
sumptive evidence  of  aristocracy.  Nor  was  tiiere 
a  more  certain  mode  of  awakening  suspicion  of 
incivism,  than  to  seem  to  be  devout,  or  moral,  or 
gentlemanly,  unless  these  obnoxious  qualities  were 
redeemed  by  some  accompaniment  of  crime. 

There  have  been  those  who  would  make  phi- 
losophy responsible  for  these  extravagances  and 
excesses,  because  it  had  been  assiduously  culti- 
vated in  Paris,  just  before  the  Revolution,  and 
some  of  its  maxims  were  appealed  to  in  justifica- 
tion of  the  excesses.  But  nothing  can  be  more 
unjust.  There  was  mingled  with  the  enlightened 
part  of  the  Paris  population,  a  far  larger  por- 
tion which  was  immersed  in  the  grossest  ignorance. 


*The  Count  de  Buffon. 


They  had  been  brought  up  as  it  were  in  a  prison 
house,  into  which  the  surrounding  light  of  heaven 
could  never  penetrate ;  and,  when  set  free  from  the 
restraints  of  law,  they  were  powerful  instruments 
of  mischief  in  the  hands  of  those  who  were  at  once 
skilful  and  unscrupulous  in  using  them.  There 
were  also  those  who  partook  of  the  intellectual 
light  of  the  age,  but  who  from  a  faulty  education, 
or  accident,  or  the  unjust  institutions  of  society  had 
not  proportional  moral  improvement — men  who 
saw  the  inequality  with  which  the  goods  of  life 
were  distributed  ;  that  those  who  had  the  smallest 
share  were  the  most  numerous ;  and  that  they  might 
be  prompted  to  the  inclination,  as  they  already 
had  the  ability,  to  be  their  own  carvers.  An  alli- 
ance was  thus  tbrmed  between  cunning  and  igno- 
rance— the  cunning  few  and  ignorant  many — and 
no  wonder  that  in  a  short  time,  all  that  was  vene- 
rable and  virtuous  and  generous,  as  well  as  all 
that  had  been  tyrannical  and  oppressive,  were  fu- 
riously assailed  and  beatevi  to  the  ground.  The 
progress  of  knowledge  had  no  other  agency  in 
producing  this  result,  than  that  a  portion  of  society 
borrowed  its  intellectual  light  without  approach- 
ing near  enough  to  profit  by  its  moral  warmth  : 
and  it  is  as  unreasonable  to  blame  philosophy  for 
these  outrages,  as  to  blame  religion  for  the  bloody 
massacres  and  merciless  persecutions  which  were 
perpetrated  in  her  name.  With  far  greater  rea- 
son may  the  moderation  observed  by  the  mob  of 
Paris,  in  the  three  day  revolution  of  1830,  be  as- 
cribed to  the  influence  of  the  liberal  and  philoso- 
phical spirit,  which  had  been  gaining  ground 
throughout  the  civilized  world,  and  particularly 
in  France  for  twenty  years  before  :  and  it  deserves 
notice,  that  this  moderation,  as  well  as  the  occa- 
sion on  which  it  would  be  exercised,  was  confi- 
dently predicted  in  tl)is  country,  by  a  French 
gentleman,*  now  enjoying  an  elevated  rank  in 
France  ;  and  he  founded  his  prediction  on  the  im- 
proved character  of  the  population  of  Paris. 

Having  thus  taken  a  view  of  the  past  effects  of 
the  progress  of  philosophy,  let  us  now  look  before 
us,  and  endeavoring  to  scan  the  future,  learn  what 
are  hereafter  to  be  its  effects  on  the  world,  especi- 
ally on  that  portion  of  it,  in  which  we  are  most 
interested. 

We  are  sometimes  reproached  with  being 
more  disposed  to  look  at  what  our  country  will 
be,  than  at  what  it  is;  but  when  the  changes  are 
so  rapid  and  great,  we  should  not  only  betray  a 
strange  insensibility  to  our  future  destiny,  but  be 
grossly  wanting  in  prudence,  not  to  keep  the  fact 
constantly  present  to  our  minds.  It  should  af- 
fect our  policy,  legislation,  and  even  our  indi- 
vidual contracts  and  schemes  of  profit ;  and  while 
we  do  not  object  to  other  nations  seeing,  in  the 


I 


111 


♦  General  Bernard,  whose  anticipations  of  the  leading  event* 
of  that  revolution,  in  a  conversation  with  the  author,  had  all  the 
accuracy  of  history. 


2 


12 


DISCOURSE  ON  PHILOSOPHY. 


DISCOURSE  ON  PHILOSOPHY. 


13 


mirror  of  the  i>a8t,  interesting?  memorials  of  their 
former  ^\ot}\  they  may  suffer  us  to  look  at  ours, 
through  the  prism  of  hope.  In  which  objects  are  a 
little  distorted  without  being  exaggerated,  and 
appear  in  hues  delightfully  gay  and  diversified. 
L*t  us  see  then  how  the  certain  progress  of  popu- 
lation, and  the  probable  progress  of  reason  and 
philosophy  are  likely  to  affect  us. 

Of  the  rapid  advancement  of  the  United  States 
in  numbers,  powers  and  wealth,  we  have  now  a 
moral  certainty.  After  the  lapse  of  forty  years,  we 
have  seen  that  their  population  continues  to  double 
at  the  rate  which  Franklin  long  ago  assumed,  and 
we  have  full  confirmation  of  the  views  taken  by 
Malthus  more  than  thirty  years  ago,  and  by  Frank- 
lin long  before  him,  that  mankind  continue  thus  to 
increase  where  the  means  of  subsistence  are  easy. 
There  will  hardly  be  any  change  in  this  particular 
here,  before  our  numbers  have  reached  60  persons 
to  a  square  mile.     Perhaps  when  we  consider  the 
remarkable  fertility  of  the  larger  part,  not  before 
we  have  reached  100 :  but  with  the  former  limit, 
our  country  would  contain  100  millions  of  inhabi- 
tants, in  three  periods  of  doubling,  or  in  75  years. 
Some  doubts  have  been  entertained  whether  our 
future  increase  will  not  diminish  in  an  increasing 
ratio;  and  a  very  general  error  as  to  the  rate  of 
increase,  exhibited  at  the  last  census,  has  favored 
that  opinion.     But  in  point  of  fact,  the  increase 
for  the  ten  years  ending  in  1830,  was  a  fraction 
more  than  34  j)er  cent.,  instead  of  a  fraction  more 
than  33  per  cent.,  as  our  almanacs  and  other  peri- 
otlicals  have  stated,  because  they  did  not  attend  to 
the  fact,  that  the  last  census  shewed  the  increase 
only  for  nine  years  and  ten  months.    This  result 
is  so  unexampled  and  so  great,  that  it  requires  an 
effort  for  us  to  conceive  its  reality;  yet  it  rests 
upon  as  satisfactory  grounds  as  any  future  event 
whatever:  and  it  is  not  a  remote  improbability, 
that  some  who  now  hear  me  will  live  to  see  our 
population  amount  to  100  millions. 

For  our  jwlitical  organization  we  have  nothing 
to  desire,  if  our  present  government  continues. 
The  self-healing  power,  which  more  or  less  per- 
vades all  bodies,  politic  as  well  as  natural,  has 
unrestricted  vigor  here,  and  may  be  expected  to 
bring  an  adequate  remedy  for  every  political  dis- 
ease likely  to  arise. 

But  one  of  the  evils  apprehended  by  some,  is  a 
dissolution  of  the  Union  ;  and  it  is  asked,  if  this 
has  already  been  seriously  threateneil,  how  will 
it  be  when  tlie  sources  of  collision  and  rivalship 
shall  be  multiplied— when  all  fear  of  tbreign  ag- 
greaswn,  which  now  operates  as  a  band  to  keep 
us  together,  shall  be  removed— when  personal  am- 
bition shall  seek,  by  a  separation,  that  field  for  its 
enterprises  which  the  Union  does  not  afford— and 
the  natural  increase  of  an  indigent  and  ignorant 
daw  ihall  furnish  him  with  ready  tools  for  his  lel- 
fiih  projectf? 


But  I  do  not  see  the  probability  that  tiie  proud 
liopes,  which  dictated  a  perpetual  league  among 
the  stales,  are  to  be  disappointed.  It  seems  to 
me  that  the  occasions  in  which  their  interests  clash 
are  few,  compared  with  those  in  which  they  coin- 
cide, and  that  one  of  the  strongest  ligaments  of 
union  is  the  diversity  of  pursuits  among  the  states, 
by  which  they  are  all  benefited  by  a  free  commercial 
intercourse.  Thus,  some  produce  grain  and  cattle, 
others,  fish,  or  sugar,  or  rice  and  cotton  :  some  are 
exclusively  agricultural  in  their  pursuits,  and  are 
of  course  venders  of  raw  produce,  whilst  others 
are  manufacturing  states,  and  purchasers  of  raw 
produce:  some  are  largely  concerned  in  navi- 
gation, whilst  others  are  inland.  Thus  all  are 
gainers  by  an  interchangeof  their  respective  com- 
modities and  species  of  industry  ;  and  this  mutual 
commerce,  founded  in  mutual  interests,  will  less 
and  less  recjuire  aid  from  the  government. 

We  may,  moreover,  reasonably  expect,  that 
these  sources  of  mutual  benefit  and  intercourse 
will  increase,  and  that  new  products  of  agriculture 
and  manufactures  will  arise  under  some  propitious 
accident  or  kindness  of  nature,  will  extend  the  mu- 
tual dei>endence  of  the  states,  and  proiwrtionally 
multiply  the  bonds  of  union.  Each  state  will  be  im- 
j)ortant  to  the  rest  for  its  useful  products,  and  they 
in  turn  will  be  valuable  to  it,  both  for  affording  a 
market,  and  for  the  products  they  give  in  ex- 
kchange.  The  commerce,  too,  will  be  the  more 
profitable,  and  likely  to  be  the  more  extensive, 
by  its  being  free  from  imposts  or  vexatious  re- 
strictions. Under  the  fostering  care  of  this  free- 
dom, we  may  ex|>ect  that  wine,  and  silk,  and  the 
olive  may  be  added  to  the  protlucts  of  the  south— 
and  that  whenever  labor  shall  fall  to  the  point  of 
merely  earning  a  subsistence,  tea  may  be  also  cul- 
tivated ;  as  no  doubt  some  part  of  our  country  is 
similar  in  climate  to  China,  since  it  is  not  only  in  a 
correspondent  latitude,  but  on  the  same  side  of  its 

continent. 

The  time  will  come  when  mostof  our  manufac- 
tures can  be  procured  from  the  northern  or  middle 
states  cheaper  than  from  Europe,  and  when  those 
states  will  also  furnish  a  larger  market  for  the  pro- 
ducts of  the  south  The  time  has  already  come  when 
cotton,  and  rice,  and  tobacco,  if  that  pernicious 
weed  shall  always  constitute  one  of  man's  artificial 
wants,  can  be  procured  more  cheaply  from  the 
southern  states  than  elsewhere;  and  though  there  is 
not,  within  the  present  limits  of  the  United  States, 
as  much  land  adapted  to  the  cane  as  will  supply 
its  future  inhabitants  with  sugar,  without  that  in- 
crease of  price  which  must  greatly  diminish  its 
rate  of  consumption,  yet  the  trade  in  this  useful 
commo<lity  will  not  therefore  be  less  important, 
either  to  the  states  which  sell,  or  those  which  pur- 
chase it. 

This  commercial  intercourse  will  be  greatly 
extended  by  the  numerous  canals  and  rail  roads, 


which  are  destined  to  intersect  our  country  in 
every  direction.  By  the  greater  cheapness  of 
transportation,  the  commerce  will  be  extended,  not 
only  because  more  distant  points  will  be  brought 
into  connection,  but  also  because  there  will  be  a 
greater  number  of  articles  which  may  be  advan-r 
tageously  transported.  All  the  canals  and  rail 
roads  from  one  state  to  another,  which  shall  bcj 
sufficiently  used  to  compensate  for  their  construci* 
tion,  will  be  so  many  sinews  to  knit  together  ouV 
wide  spread  and  diversified  republic.  New  York 
and  Pennsylvania  have  already  thus  bound  them- 
selves to  the  west.  Maryland  and  Virginia,  and, 
without  doubt,  Georgia  and  the  Carolinas,  will  fol- 
low the  example. 

When  we  shall  be  thus  connected  by  the  golden 
chain  of  mutual  interests  instead  of  the  iron  fetters 
o(^  power,  and  by  that  honiogeneousness  of  manners 
which  an  increased  intercourse  will  produce,  what 
will  be  likely  to  effect  a  separation.''  Let  us  sup- 
pose any  state,  considering  itself  aggrieved  by  some 
measure  of  the  federal  government,  was  to  with- 
draw herself  from  the  confederacy,  and  that  the 
other  states  were  to  acquiesce  in  her  course,  either 
because  they  felt  no  interest  in  the  matter,  or  be- 
cause they  were  willing  to  surrender  up  those  in- 
terests to  a  claim  of  right.  It  can  scarcely  be 
doubted  that  such  seceding  state  would  find  the 
disadvantages  of  its  new  situation  so  great,  sur- 
rounded by  rival  and  hostile  and  taunting  neigh- 
bors— attended  with  so  much  continjjent  danger 
and  certain  expense,  that  after  the  first  irritation 
had  passed  away,  it  would  sue  to  be  re-admitted 

But  when  it  is  recollected  that,  in  no  distant  day, 
every  state  will  either  be  an  outlet  for  other  states 
to  the  ocean,  or  the  medium  of  communication  for 
those  lying  on  each  side  of  it,  it  would  be  accord- 
ing to  all  experience  to  presume  that  they  will  mt 
regard  a  question  thus  directly  affecting  their  in- 
terestSj  as  oi>e  also  affecting  tiieir  rightSj  and  will 
vindicate  l)oth,  by  an  appeal  to  force,  if  necessary : 
and  thus  the  question  of  separation  will  always  be 
a  question  of  war.  The  constitutional  question, 
which  may  have  been  previously  agitated,  will  be 
drowned  in  the  din  and  tumult  of  arms,  and  finally 
decided  by  the  issue  of  the  war.  Victory  is  the 
great  arbiter  of  right  in  national  disputes,  and  that 
scale  of  justice  on  which  slie  hapi>ens  to  light,  is 
almost  sure  to  preponderate. 

I  have  been  supjwsing  the  case  of  a  single  state, 
or  even  a  small  section  of  states  to  desire  a  sepa- 
ration. But  it  may  be  asked  whether  all  the 
states  may  not  voluntarily  consent  to  a  dissolution ; 
or  at  least  so  large  a  portion  as  to  make  resistance 
on  the  part  of  the  rest  ho{)eless.  I  answer  that  I 
am  not  able  to  conceive  any  such  general  and  pow- 
erful cause,  nor  do  I  know  of  any  example  of  a  simi- 
lar voluntary  disseverance  in  history.  In  every 
case  in  which  an  integral  community,  whether 
consolidated  or  confederate,  has  been  separated,  it 


has  been  by  violence,  and  commonly  external  vio- 
lence— either  by  one  nation,  subjugating  another, 
or  by  some  successful  leader  succeeding  by  his 
arts  and  talents  in  arraying  one  part  against  the 
rest :  or  the  parts  of  a  great  empire  have  been  par- 
titioned among  the  descendants  or  legatees  of  the 
last  occupant — none  of  which  causes  of  separation 
can  be  expected  to  operate  here.  It  is  indeed  a 
conceivable  thing  for  some  prominent  and  popular 
individual  to  excite  a  particular  slate  to  discontent, 
and  finally  to  civil  war ;  and  although  we  have 
happily  had  no  example  of  such  flagitiousness,  we 
have  seen  enough  to  make  us  think  it  possible : 
yet  whatever  may  be  the  supposed  success  of  such 
men  at  home, there  will  always  be  many  counter- 
actions to  their  influence  in  the  adjoining  states, 
and  in  the  same  degree  that  the  agitator  is  a  popu- 
lar idol  in  his  own  state,  he  will  be  an  object  of 
suspicion  in  the  adjoining  states,  who  will  judge  of 
him  by  his  actions,  unaffected  by  his  arts  or  the 
imposing  lustre  of  his  personal  qualities. 

Our  own  past  history  affords  some  confirmation 
of  these  views.  It  is,  for  example,  now  seen,  since 
the  veil  which  once  concealed  the  acts  of  the  Hart- 
ford Convention,  has  been  partially  raised,  that  the 
power  of  the  agents  in  that  combination  to  sepa- 
rate the  union  was  far  less  than  had  been  supposed, 
and  that  they  could  not  have  led  on  the  states 
there  represented  to  make  that  shew  of  resistance 
to  the  general  government  which  excited  appre- 
hensions for  the  union,  if  they  had  professed  any 
other  than  the  moderate  and  legitimate  objects  of 
making  their  peculiar  interests  more  respected, 
and  of  providing  additional  guards  against  the  in- 
vasion of  those  interests  in  the  time  to  come.  It 
now  appears,  that  however  we  may  disapprove 
the  means  used  to  effectuate  their  objects,  the  ends 
were  blameless;  and  there  is  much  reason  to  be- 
lieve that  the  moment  the  separation  of  the  states 
had  shewn  itself  to  be  the  ultimate  object  of  their 
leaders,  that  moment  they  would  have  been  desert- 
ed by  the  larger  part  of  their  followers. 

The  case  of  him  whose  history  has  been  so  preg- 
nant of  instruction  to  lawless  ambition,  and  who 
eighteen  years  ago  was  arraigned  in  this  very 
capitol  for  the  highest  of  all  crimes,  affords  another 
instructive  example.  So  long  as  his  object  was 
believed  to  be  the  settlement  of  the  Washita  lands, 
he  may  have  ranked  among  his  follmvers  the  most 
honest  and  patriotic  of  the  land.  So  long  as  he 
merely  proposed  to  emancipate  the  Mexicans  from 
the  Spanish  yoke,  the  generous  and  enterprising 
youth  of  the  west,  as  unsuspicious  of  guile  in 
others  as  they  were  incapable  of  it  themselves, 
might  have  flocked  to  his  standard,  and  even  glo- 
ried in  the  act  of  self-devotion  :  but  no  sooner  was 
it  known  that  the  infatuated  man  was  pursuing 
the  phantom  of  individual  aggrandizement,  at  the 
expense  of  his  country's  peace  and  in  violation  of 
her  laws,  than  he  was  "  left  alone  in  his  glory." 


14 


DISCOURSE  ON  PHILOSOPHY. 


DISCOURSE  ON  PHILOSOPHY. 


15 


Most  of  his  followers  abandoned  him  from  princi- 
ple, and  the  few  who  were  without  principle,  de- 
serted him  from  cowardice.  It  if  peculiarly  grati- 
fying that  both  of  these  examples  so  strikingly 
exhibit  the  attachment  of  the  American  people  to 
the  union,  as  it  will  probably  be  only  in  one  or 
the  other  of  these  modes  tliat  its  integrity  will  ever 
be  assailed. 

The  event  by  which  the  union  was  still  more 
seriously  threatened,  has  been  too  recent  for  ipe 
to  say  much  of  it  on  the  present  occasion.  Yet  I 
may  be  permitted  to  remark,  without  opening 
wounds  hanlly  yet  cicatrized,  that  both  those  who 
apprehend  disunion  and  those  who  dread  consoli- 
dation may  draw  salutary  lessons  from  that  event ; 
and  that  each  party  may,  by  a  course  of  impru- 
dence, promote  the  very  evil  of  which  it  is  most 
apprehensive.  I  will  add,  that  it  affords  additional 
evidence  of  the  strength  of  the  ligaments  which 
bind  us  together,  for  if  those  who  felt  themselves 
aggrieved  by  the  general  government,  had  been 
less  sensible  of  the  value— <i(  the  necessity  of  the 
union— then  the  master  pilot,*  who  at  the  critical 
moment  seized  the  helm,  and  steered  the  ship  of 
state  through  the  breakers  that  threatened  her  on 
either  side,  had  interposed  his  consummate  skill  in 

vain. 

But  when  it  is  considered  that  the  continuance 
of  the  union  is  indispensable  to  our  peace,  pros- 
perity, and  civil  liberty— that  on  it  rest  our  hopes 
of  national  greatness,  it  would  hardly  seem  con- 
sistent with  prudence  to  rely  altogether  on  the 
natural  securities  I  have  mentioned.     We  should 
also  sedulously  guard  against  whatever  niay  tend 
to  weaken  our  attachment  to  it;  and  should  there- 
fore confine  the  functions  of  the  general  govern- 
ment to  those  objects  which  are  most  indispensa- 
ble to  the  prosperity  of  the  whole,  and  to  which 
the  powers  of  the  separate  governments  are  incom- 
petent.    And  while  it  should  exercise  no  power 
which  was  not  clearly  beneficial,  as  well  as  con- 
stitutional, it  should  forbear  to  exercise  such  pow- 
ers as  come  under  this  description,  when   they 
may  prove  sources  of  discontent,  or  of  collision 
with  local  feelings  and  interests.     The  advantages 
of  such  a  course  will  be  to  give  the  federal  gov- 
ernment greater  efficacy  in  the  execution  of  its 
remaining  powers,  and  especially  in  our  foreign 
concerns;  and  it  will  afford  us  the  best  security, 
not  only  against  disunion,  but  the  opposite  danger 
of  consolidation.     The  continuance  of  our  present 
complex  system  of  government— the  only  one  in 
which  the  highest  degree  of  civil  liberty  can  be 
reconciled  with  the  greatest  extent  of  territory- 
depends  on  its  maintaining  a  just  equipoise  be- 
tween the  general  government  and  the  govern- 
menU  of  the  separate  states ;  and  that  equipoise 


*  Henry  Clay,  who  wm  ihui  thrice  mainly  inetrumenUl  in 
(iTiDg  peace  to  hie  country. 


may  be  disturbed  no  less  by  enlarging  the  capacity 
of  conferring  favors  than  that  of  doing  mischief— of 
appealing  to  the  ho(>es  no  less  than  to  the  fears  of 
the  community. 

There  is  another  safeguard  against  both  disunion 
and  consolidation,  to  be  founil  in  the  diffusion  of  in- 
struction among  all  classes  of  people ;  to  which  ob- 
ject all  the  states  have  given  encouragement.    Be- 
sides the  general  moral  effects  which  such  mental 
culture  is  found  to  produce,  wherever  it  has  been 
tried,  it  will  make  the  mischiefs  of  a  single  na- 
tional government  or  of  several  disnnited  govern- 
ments, which  are  already  so  obvious  to  those  who 
have  reflection  and   forecast,  intelligible  to  all. 
The  diffusion  of  intelligence  will  operate  advan- 
tageously to  the  same  end  in  another  way.     It 
will  raise  the  self-respect  and  honest  pride  of  the 
indigent  classes,  and  these  sentiments  afford  the 
best" security  against  an  over-crowded  population 
and  its  deleterious  consequences,  for  they  naturally 
tend  to  raise  the  ordinary  standard  of  comfort,  and 
the  higher  that  is,  the  sooner  do  the  checks  to  im- 
provident marriages  begin  to  operate. 

Supposing  our  federal  union  to  be  thus  endur- 
ing, the  progress  of  philosophy  may  be  expected 
to  continue  with  our  advancement  in  numbers  and 
wealth,  and  to  exhibit  itself  in  the  increased  vigor 
of  the  reasoning  faculties ;  the  greater  purity  of 
religion ;  the  better  government  of  the  passions ; 
an  enlarged  dominion  over  physical  nature;   a 
deeper  insight  into  the  multifarious  laws  of  mind 
and  matter;  and  a  general  amelioration  of  our  con- 
dition, social,  intellectual,  and  moral.     But  dan- 
gers and  evils  are  apprehended  by  some,  when  we 
shall  have  a  large  class  of  manufacturers.     This 
must  eventually  be  the  condition  of  the  greater 
part  of  the  population  of  every  civilized  country, 
since  in  no  other  way  can  the  greater  part  of  a 
dense  jwpulation  find  employment.     A  small  pro- 
portion of  the  community  is  sufficient  to  cultivate 
the  soil,  especially  with  so  fertile  a  territory  as  the 
greater  part  of  the  United  States ;  and  the  rest 
must  be  employed  in  raanuAictures,  or  starve.  Be- 
sides, the  products  of  this  species  of  industry  are 
as  essential  to  our  comfort  and  enjoyment,  if  not 
to  our  subsistence,  as  raw  produce.  We  must  have 
clothes,  furniture,  utensils,  and  books,  as  well  as 
food :  and  when  our  numbers  shall  be  sufficiently 
great  to  consume  the  whole  of  our  raw  produce, 
as  in  time  it  certainly  will  be,  we  shall  cease  to 
export ;  and  the  great  mass  of  its  consumers  here, 
must  fulfil    the    inevitable    ultimate    destiny  of 
man— he  must  labor  for  his  subsistence,  either  in 
tilling  the  earth,  or  in  giving  to  its  products  some 
new  form,  which  by  ministering  to  the  wants  of 
others,  may  enable  him  to  satisfy  his  own.     The 
people  of  the  United  States  must  therefore  become 
a  manufacturing  people,  as  well  as  their  progeni- 
tors, and  that  too  at  no  very  remote  period.     At 
present,  most  of  our  citizens  are  agriculturists,  be- 


cause they  find  a  ready  sale  for  their  redundant  pro- 
ducts ;  but  while  it  may  be  easy  to  obtain  a  market 
for  the  surplus  produce  of  fourteen  millions  of  peo- 
ple, it  may  not  be  equally  easy  to  find  a  vent  abroad 
for  the  prmlucts  of  the  one  hundred  millions  before 
spoken  of;  or  even  of  the  fifty  millions  which  our 
numbers  will  certainly  reach  in  less  than  another 
half  century.  Tt  must  be  recollected  that  while  we 
increase  at  the  rate  of  three  per  cent,  per  annum, 
our  customers  do  not  increase  beyond  the  rate  of 
one  per  cent.,  and  some  scarcely  increase  at  all. 
Those  therefore,  who  will  be  thus  spared  from 
agriculture,  must  be  employed  in  manufactures. 

The  }K)litical  effects  of  so  large  a  class  of  manu- 
facturers in  our  country,  has  suggested  two  very 
opposite  theories.  According  to  one,  the  influence 
of  property  will  be  increased  by  the  change ;  ac- 
cording to  the  other,  its  rights  will  be  endangered. 
The  advocates  of  the.first  opinion  say,  that  capital 
has  the  same  relation  to  manufactures  that  land 
has  to  agricultural  labor;  for  it  is  only  large  capi- 
tals that  can  be  advantageously  employed  in  the 
principal  manufactures;  and  that  the  laborers  in 
both  species  of  industry,  will  feel  their  dependence 
on  their  employers.  It  will  therefore  happen  that 
the  votes  given  immediately  by  the  laboring  class, 
will  be  substantially  the  votes  of  the  rich  landlord 
or  capitalist. 

But  on  the  other  hand,  it  has  been  apprehended, 
and  not  without  some  show  of  reason,  that  the 
working  class,  having  the  power  in  their  own 
hands,  by  the  preponderance  of  numbers,  need 
only  to  act  in  concert,  to  control  the  course  of 
legislation.  It  is  further  urged,  that  if  the  means 
of  popular  instruction  can  become  general,  or 
though  that  should  be  found  impracticable,  if  the 
intelligence  of  the  community  should  increase  with 
the  progress  of  society,  that  this  class  will  more 
readily  feel  its  power,  have  stronger  inducements 
to  exercise  it,  and  be  better  able  to  devise  the 
means.  Admitting  concerted  action  practicable, 
as  it  would  be  obviously  desirable,  what,  it  is 
asked,  is  to  hinder  these  men  from  ridding  them- 
selves of  their  pro|)ortion  of  the  taxes.^— of  ap- 
propriating to  themselves  the  property  of  the  rich 
by  various  legislative  devices,  as  in  limiting  the 
prices  of  provisions,  in  planning  expensive  schemes 
in  which  the  utility  would  be  exclusively  to  them- 
selves, or  not  in  proportion  to  the  cost, — or  even 
in  some  moment  of  madness  and  reckless  injustice, 
of  passingan  Agrarian  law.?  It  is  vain  to  urge  that 
as  such  a  violation  of  the  rights  of  property  would 
have  the  ultimate  effect  of  injuring  all  classes,  or 
at  least  a  far  greater  number  than  it  would  benefit, 
it  is  contrary  to  the  general  instinct  of  self  inte- 
rest to  suppose  the  greater  portion  of  the  commu- 
nity would  pursue  it ;  for  these  remote  interests 
might  not  be  perceived,  and  though  they  were, 
they  would  not  prevail  against  the  force  of  present 
temptation. 


But  the  argument  assumes  that  there  will  be  a 
majority  of  the  community  who  will  feel  a  present 
interest  in  such  violations  of  the  rights  of  property, 
and  this  proposition  may  well  be  questioned.     In 
our  country,  where  industry  and  capital  are  free 
to  exercise  themselves  in  any  way,  there  will  al- 
ways be  a  gradation  of  classes  from  the  richest  to 
the  poorest,  so  as  to  make  the  line  which  separates 
them  an  imperceptible  one.     We  have  no  political 
institutions,  and  few  prejudices  to  make  such  a  sep- 
aration.    Every  one  is  estimated  according  to  his 
individual  merits,  little  affected  by  those  of  his  an- 
cestors :   and  although  somewhat  of  the  honor  or 
discredit  of  parents  attaches  to  the  child,  yet  it  is 
probably  little  more  than  is  warranted  by  the  pre- 
sumption that  there  is   a  resemblance   between 
them.     We  are  not  distinguished  into  castes  as 
in  India,  where  one  portion  of  society  engrosses 
all   the   more  honorable  and  agreeable  employ- 
ments of  life,  and  the  other  is  allotted  to  its  most 
irksome  and  debasing  offices;  nor  into  Patrician 
and  Plebeian,  as  in  Rome ;  nor  into  lords  and  com- 
mons, as  in  England ;  nor  noblesse  and  canaille^  as 
formerly  in  France  and  the  rest  of  Europe  ;  dis- 
tinctions which  at  once  provoke  combination  and 
make  it  more  practicable. 

Nor  is  the  indigent  class  likely  to  be  as  large  in 
this  country  as  in  most  others.  Our  institutions, 
in  many  ways,  favor  both  the  acquisition  and  the 
diffusion  of  property.  In  the  first  place,  by  their 
being  more  exempt  from  restrictions.  No  trade 
or  occupation  is  lettered  by  monopolies  or  corpo- 
ration laws,  or  laws  of  apprenticeship,  so  that  in- 
dustry and  talent  being  free  to  act,  wherever  and 
however  they  please,  are  likely  to  find  the  situa- 
tions in  which  they  can  be  most  profitably  ex- 
erted. 

In  the  next  place,  all  offices  and  professions 
which  are  means  of  acquiring  properly,  or  are  of 
themselves  a  valuable  property,  while  they  last, 
are  thrown  open  to  the  competition  of  all ;  and  we 
see  them  as  often,  or  moreolten,  won  by  those  who 
were  born  in  poverty,  and  who  have  been  accus- 
tomed to  rely  on  their  own  resources,  than  by  the 
pampered  sons  of  wealth  and  luxury. 

And  lastly,  the  diffusion  of  property  is  the  great- 
er by  the  practice  of  dividing  an  estate  among  all 
the  children  of  a  family  ;  which,  either  by  the  act 
of  law,  or  the  will  of  the  deceased  proprietor,  has 
become  almost  universal.  The  law  of  primogeni- 
ture, by  artificially  damming  up  property  to  pre- 
vent its  natural  diffusion,  must  increase  the  num- 
ber of  the  poor  in  the  same  degree  that  it  increases 
the  number  of  the  rich.  The  estate  which  re- 
mains in  the  same  family  in  England  for  three 
generations,  and  continues  throughout  the  property 
of  a  single  individual,  is  here  distributed  among 
twenty  or  thirty,  and  often  a  far  greater  number. 
This  single  change  in  our  municipal  law,  would 
necessarily   have  the    effect   of  converting    the 


IC 


DISCOURSE  ON  PHILOSOPHY. 


DISCOURSE  ON  PHILOSOPHY. 


17 


properly  holders  into  a  majority  of  the   com- 
munity. 

Whenever,  then,  the  line  between  the  rich  and 
the  poor  is  drawn  in  this  country,  it  will  always 
comprehend  a  far  smaller  proportion  of  the  last 
class  than  in  any  other,  so  long  m  our  civil  insti- 
tutions retain  their  present  character  ;  and  the 
number  of  |»eople  who  have  property  to  some 
amount,  and  who  have  the  hope  of  acquiring  it, 
will  always  be  much  greater  than  those  who  have 
none.  When  it  is  further  recollected  that  th«ise 
who  have  made  their  own  fortunes— a  very  nu- 
merous class  in  all  free  countries -are  likely 
to  possess  energy  and  intelligence;  they  may  also 
be  expected  to  possess  an  influence  more  than  pro- 
portionate to  their  numbers.  To  these  considera- 
tions we  may  add  the  connections  which  arise  from 
favors  received  or  expected,  by  the  poor  from  tlie 
rich  ;  the  influence  of  habit;  the  protection  of  the 
laws;  the  restraints  of  morality,  of  indolence,  and 
fear,  and  they  seem  sufficient  to  assure  us  that  ap- 
prehensions of  a  mischievous  combination  of  the 
poor  against  the  rich,  are  groundless  ;  and  that  all 
whichlhe  indigent  class  can  effect  for  their  own 
advantage  by  combination,  may  not  prove  a  suffi- 
cient antagonist  to  the  influence  the  rich  will  be 
able  to  exert  over  them. 

I  know  of  no  instance  of  a  successful  combina- 
tion of  the  indigent  classes,  except  in  the  case  of 
the  Agrarian  laws  at  Rome.     But  this  subject  has 
been  greatly  misunderstood,  and  there  never  was 
a  more  well  founded  complaint  than  that  which 
the  poor  made  against  the  rich,  on  that  occasion 
Modern  historians  seem  to  have  followed  up  the 
injustice,  by  misrepresenting  the  facts,  and  assail- 
ing the  character  of  those  who  had  been  previously 
defrauded  of  their  property.     The  diligent   re- 
searches of  German  scholars*  have  shewn  incon- 
testibly  that  the  Agrarian  laws,  for  which  the 
Gracchi  lost  their  lives,  concerned  only  the  public 
lands,  which  had  been  obtained  by  conquest,  and 
not  those  which  formetl  part  of  the  territory  of  the 
ancient  republic.     As  these   public   lands   were 
charged  with  a  very  moderate,— merely  nominal 
j-ent,— it  was  necessary  to  imjiose  some  limit  upon 
the  portion  which  a  single  individual  could  obtain, 
which  was  accordingly  fixed  at  500  jugera — equal 
to  about  312  of  our  acres.     But  the  Patrician  class 
soon  found  means  to  evade  this  law,  and  having 
engrossed  these  lands,  the  purposes  for  which  they 
were  set  apart — of  affording  the  means  of  support 
to  the  poor,  and  of  rewarding  those  by   whose 
bravery  and  toils  they  had  been  won — was  thus 
completely  defeated :  and  the  redundant  population, 
unprovidetl  with  the  means  of  subsistence,  were 
obliged  to  become  the  bondsmen  of  the  rich.     Ti- 
berius Gracchus  endeavored  to  have  this  flagrant 
wrong,  which  was  a  political  mischief,  as  well  as 


•  Hereon  and  Nicbuhr. 


a  moral  injustice,  corrected:  and  whatever  may 
have  been  his  motives,  he  so  evidently  had  right  on 
his  side,  that  he  finally  prevailed.  But  because  he 
succeeded  in  defending  the  unquestioned  rights  of 
the  injured  party,  does  it  follow  that  he  would 
have  had  equal  success  in  defending  injustice.' 
Because  he  was  able  to  sustain  the  violated  rights 
of  property,  would  he  have  been  also  aide  to  de- 
stroy them?  Certainly  not:  For  he  with  diffi- 
culty succeeded,  even  at  the  cost  of  his  life :  and 
success  would  have  been  im})Ossible  but  for  the 
dauntless  intrepidity  and  the  zealous  support  which 
the  goodness  of  his  cause  inspired. 

To  the  progress  of  our  literature  and  science  we 
may  look  with  unalloyed  hoj>es.     In  many  branch- 
es, both  ornamental  and  useful,  we  are  still  behind 
the  country  from  which  we  are  descended ;  and  we 
fall  as  far  short  of  her  in  the  quantity  of  original 
productions  as  in  the  quality.     But  this,  we  confi- 
dently trust,  is  but  a  temporary  inferiority.     Our 
whole  faculties  are  now  engaged  in  cultivating 
the  choicest  fruits  of  civilization,  and  by  and  by 
we  shall  turn  our  attention  to  its  flowers.     Our 
late  rapid  advancement  in  letters  affords  a  sure 
presage  of  future  excellence,  and  symptoms  of  this 
gratifying  change  gladden  our  eyes  in  every  direc- 
tion.    As  soon  as  the  more  imperious  wants  of  the 
country  shall  be  satisfied,  and  men  of  superior  pow- 
ers and  attainments  shall  have  filled  the  learned 
professions,  and  offices  requiring  science  and  talent, 
then  we  shall  begin  to  form  a  class  of  men  of  let- 
ters, who  will  devote  their  leisure  and  genius  to 
minister  to  our  intellectual  wants  :  And  they  will 
find  here  a  wide  field  both  for  speculation  and  de- 
scription, political,  physical    and    moral.      We 
are  justified  in  pronouncing  that  our  literature  will 
have  freshness,  boldness,  richness  and  variety,  and 
I  would  fain  hope,  the  crowning  grace  of  simplicity. 
Poetry,  though  not  destined  again  to  receive  divine 
honors,  or  even  the  same  profound  homage  as  in  a 
later  day,  will  always  occupy  a  high  place  in  the 
world  of  letters :  for  the  pleasure  which  can  be  con  - 
veyed  to  the  mind  by  rhythm,  imagery  and  fervid 
sentiment  combined,  are  immutable;  but  the  high- 
er province  of  intellect  will  be  to  instruct  and  con- 
vince ;  to  aid  us  in  the  arduous  duties  of  life — whe- 
ther as  members  of  a  profession,  as  citizens  of  the 
state,  or  as  moral  and  responsible  beings.     Un- 
til that  dav  arrives,  let  us  cherish  those  institu- 
tions  which  best  serve  to  preserve  and  diff*use  a 
knowledge  of  science  and  letters,  as  well  as  to  in- 
crease a  taste  for  them ;  and  never  relax  in  our  ex- 
ertions until  we  are  at  least  upon  a  level  with  the 
highest.     Next  to  an  elevated  moral  character, 
this  is  the  most  proper  object  of  national  ambition: 
and  while  I  should  be  content  that  this  country  may 
never  give  birth  to  a  Phidias,  or  Canova,  a  Ra- 
phael or  Titian — that  it  should  not  produce  as  good 
musicians  as  Italy  or  Germany — as  beautiful  mil- 
linery as  Paris — as  cheap  or  good  cutlery  as  Shef- 


field— I  should  be  mortified  to  think  that  we  should 
never  be  able  to  boast  of  such  |)oets  as  Byron  or 
Pope,  such  historians  as  Hume  or  Gibbon,  such 
moralists  as  Johnson,  such  novelists  as  Walter 
Scott,  or  such  mathematicians  as  La  Place. 

In  looking  into  our  future  destiny,  I  have  not 
allowed  myself  to  travel  into  the  regions  of  fancy, 
but  have  confined  my  attention  to  those  results 
which  seemed  fairly  deducible  from  causes  now  vi- 
sibly operating;  and  which  are  in  conformity  with 
thepast  experience  of  mankind.  I  have  not  indulged 
in  those  overstrained  speculations  with  wWcl^sojisie 
have  contemplated  the  future  progress  ofyilioSfoS 
phy,  but  have  endeavored  to  avoid  on  the  one  hand, 
those  views  of  future  evil,  which  it  is  the  nature  of 
gloomy  tempers  to  entertain,  and  on  the  other,  tliose 
visions  of  future  excellence  or  perfection  incom- 
patible with  our  past  experience;  such,  for  exam- 
ple, as  ihe  dreams,  first  of  Condorcet,  and  after- 
wards of  Godwin.     Of  a  similar  character,  (  fear, 
are  the  predictions  of  those  who  think  that  war 
may  be  banished  from  the  civilized  world.    With- 
out doubt  it  is  the  tendency  of  the  progress  of  rea- 
son and  philosophy,  to  lessen  the  chances  of  war  : 
in  the  same  way  as  refinement  of  manners  checks 
personal  conflicts  among  individuals.    But  it  will, 
probably,  no  more  put  an  end  to  them  in  one  case, 
than  in  the  other ;  and  the  time  may  never  come, 
when  the  interests  of  nations  will  not  clash,  when 
they  will  not  differ  in  opinion  about  their  respec- 
tive rights;  when  they  will  not  be  willing  to  re- 
sent sup|)osed  injustice,  and  hazard  their  lives  to 
gratify  their  resentment.    Nor  can  occasions  be 
wanting  at  any  time  to  call  forth  these  motives  to 
war.     Nations  may  have  rivalship  in  trade;  rival- 
ship  in  fisheries ;  they  may  differ  about  bounda- 
ries, or  the  construction  of  treaties ;  or  they  may 
be  involved  in  the  disputes  of  others.    These  causes 
must  be  regarded  as  inseparable  from  the  condi- 
tion of  man,  even  if  he  should  no  longer  be  exposed 
to  the  danger  of  war,  from  mere  differences  of 
opinion  on  some  speculative  points  in  religion,  po- 
litics or  morals.     It  may  then  prove  in  all  fu- 
ture time,  as  it  has  proved  in  all  time  past,  that 
it  is  man's  nature  to  quarrel  and  fight,  no  less 
than  to  love  or  to  hate,  and  the  only  difference  may 
be  as  to  the  occasions  of  war,  and  the  mode  of  car- 
rying it  on :  in  short,  that  this  ultimate  argument 
of  republics  as  well  as  kings,  will  continue  to  be 
appealed  to,  as  it  always  has  been,  when  all  others 
have  failed. 

J  f  this  is  to  be  regarded  as  a  part  of  man's  inevi- 
table destiny,  let  us  not  indulge  in  vain  repinings 
at  it — but  endeavor  to  prevent  it  as  far  as  we  can, 
by  a  course  of  justice,  and  moderation,  and  forbear- 
ance: and  if,  nevertheless,  our  efforts  should  be 
unavailing,  let  the  philosophic  and  patriotic  mind 
find  consolation  in  the  fact,  that  though  war  is  the 
cause  of  much  human  misery,  it  calls  forth  many  vir- 
tues, and  affords  occasion  for  the  display  of  some  of 


the  noblest  traits  of  our  character— courage,  patri- 
otism, generosity,  disinterestedness  and  every  form 
of  virtuous  self-denial.  It  gives  a  stimulus  to  all  the 
more  elevated  and  severer  virtues.  It  breaks  up 
the  icy  frost  of  selfishness,  which  in  the  still  times 
of  peace  may  congeal  about  the  heart.  The  love 
of  country  never  burns  with  a  purer  or  stronger 
flame  than  in  the  bosom  of  the  patriotic  soldier : 
nor  can  any  thing  but  war  enable  a  citizen  to  make 
the  same  sacrifices,  or  so  prove  his  self  devotion 
to  his  country.  It  may  then  be  among  the  dis- 
pensations of  the  ruler  of  the  universe,  that  war, 
as  well  as  peace,  is  necessary  for  the  development 
and  the  preservation  of  some  of  our  highest  quali- 
ties, and  to  fulfil  our  destiny.  Nor  let  us  vainly 
hope  to  extinguish  national  more  than  individual 
resentment,  but  merely  to  regulate  it — to  reserve 
it  for  those  occasions  which  a  sense  of  justice 
prompts  and  reason  sanctions :  and  although  it  is 
but  a  blind  arbiter  of  disputes,  it  is  the  only  one, 
in  some  circumstances,  that  can  be  appealed  to. 

Having  thus,  Mr.  President,  brought  to  your 
notice,  with  less  of  condensation  than  1  could  have 
wished,  the  great  and  rapid  strides  which  human 
reason  is  now  making  in  the  civilized  world,  as  ex- 
hibited in  every  field  of  intellectual  exercise  :  hav- 
ing noticed  the  unequivocal  signs  that  this  pro- 
gress will  yet  continue,  that  we  cannot  assign  to  it 
any  precise  limits,  and  that  in  all  estimates  of  the 
future,  we  must  take  it  into  consideration:  hav- 
ing endeavored  to  infer  its  probable  effects  on  our 
condition,  taken  in  connection  with  the  other 
changes  to  which  we  are  destined,  I  have  dis- 
charged my  main  purpose.  Yet  I  do  not  feel  that 
I  have  entirely  fulfilled  my  duty  as  a  member  of 
the  Society,  unless  I  say  something  of  its  particu- 
lar objects. 

One  of  these  objects  was  to  collect  and  preserve 
the  perishable  memorials  of  the  past  history  of  Vir- 
ginia, from  the  time  it  was  a  colony  to  the  present 
day.  While  this  is  a  subject  which  must  always 
be  one  of  lively  interest  to  her  citizens,  it  is  also  one 
in  which  diligence  will  be  amply  rewarded.  Our 
early  colonial  history  more  abounds  in  events  of  a 
striking  and  diversified  character,  than  that  of  any 
of  the  other  colonies;  and  this  state,  moreover,  has 
a  sort  of  parental  relation  to  nearly  all  the  states 
to  the  south  and  west.  Full  justice  has  never  yet 
been  done  to  this  subject.  There  are  indeed  points 
in  the  history  of  the  settlement  of  the  colony,  which 
require  elucidation,  and  for  which  the  materials 
are  to  be  found,  if  at  all,  only  in  the  archives  of 
England.  But  on  our  later  history  much  light  has 
been  thrown  by  a  diligent  examination  of  the  laws 
of  the  colony ;  and  somewhat  may  be  further  glean- 
ed from  a  search  into  those  records  of  the  county 
courts,  which  have  yet  escaped  the  ravages  of  war 
and  time.  The  records  of  these  courts,  whose  du- 
ties were  always  of  a  very  miscellaneous  charac- 
ter, may  communicate  much  information  concern- 


i 


18 


DISCOURSE  ON  PHILOSOPHY. 


DISCOURSE  ON  PHILOSOPHY. 


17 


ing  the  state  itf  ■ociety,  tho  habiU,  manners  and 
ways  of  thinking  of  the  people.   The  authentic  de- 
tails of  the  public  offences  and  their  punishment,  is 
no  insignificant  portion  of  a  nation's  history.  Much 
has  been  done  in  this  way  by  Hening's  CollecUon  of 
the  Statutes  at  Large  ;  and  though  a  large  portion 
of  the  treasure  has  already  be^n  drawn  from  this 
mine,  it  has  not  been  exhausted.     After  paying  a 
just  tribute  to  the  industry  and  general  accuracy 
of  that  work,  it  also  suggests  a  caution  to  future 
inquirers  against  a  spirit  of  skepticism   towards 
preceding  narratives,  merely  because  some  inac- 
curacies have  been  discovered.     Of  this  I  may  be 
allowed  to  mention  one  or  two  examples,  as  in 
the  endeavor  to  shew  (in  which  Burke  concurs,) 
that  the  account  of  all  preceding  historians  of  the 
loyalty  of  Virginia  towards  the  House  of  Stuart, 
immediately  before  and  after  the  Commonwealth, 
was  erroneous — and  that  l)ecause  Robertson  in 
his  posthumcus  historical  sketch  was  plainly  mis- 
taken in  saying  that  no  man  suffered  capitally  "  for 
his  participation  in  Bacon's  rebellion,"  he  is  not 
entitled  to  credit:  or,  when  Bacon,  according  to 
all  previous  accounts,  had,  during  a  wet  sjiell,  at 
the  most  sickly  season  of  the  year,  in  the  county 
of  Gloucester,  been  seized  with  a  dysentery  which 
proved  mortal,  to  suggest  that  a  death  so  little 
violating  probability,  should  be  deemed  myste- 
rious, and  warranted  the  suspicion  of  poison  by  his 

enemies. 

The  history  of  the  settlements  of  the  west  exists 
only  in  tradition  or  family  letters,  and  its  mate- 
rials ought  to  be  collected  and  preservetl,  while  it 
is  not  too  late.  The  contest  between  the  pioneer 
of  civilization  and  the  native  savage,  is  full  of 
daring  adventure  and  romantic  interest.  If  the 
command  of  gunjiowder,  and  the  use  of  iron  ulti- 
mately gave  victory  to  the  former,  it  was  one 
always  dearly  bought.  The  Indians  defended  their 
native  rights  with  desperate  valor  and  consummate 
address,  and  it  was  only  inch  by  inch  that  they 
yielded  their  native  soil  to  the  invaders. 

The  origin  of  some  anomalous  enactments  in  the 
statute  book,  also  invite  inquiry.  Thus  in  the 
year  1647,  lawyers  werelorbidden  to  take  any  fees 
whatever,  and  in  1658  they  were  excluded  from 
the  legislature.  For  this  uncourteous  act,  it  must 
be  confessed  that  their  descendants  have  made  the 
amende  honorable.  The  medical  profession  seemed 
also  an  object  of  jealousy  with  the  planter;  as  by 
another  law,*  physicians  were  required  to  swear 
to  the  value  of  their  drugs. 

There  is  too,  a  good  deal  of  uncertainty  and  in- 
consistency in  the  statistical  accounts  of  the  state. 
On  the  duty  of  the  present  generation  to  collect  and 
preserve  every  thing  relative  to  the  revolution,  I 
need  not  lay  any  stress.  There  are  still  numer- 
ous papers  in  many  families,  of  no  sort  of  value  to 


them,  that  may  yet  shed  light  on  that  interesting 


era. 


*  Pasaed  in  1640, 


In  all  that  concerns  the  other  object  of  this  Socie- 
ty, the  physical  history  of  the  state,  every  thing  is 
yet  to  be  done.  The  reconls  here  are  before  us,  and 
are  indestructible  in  any  reasonable  term  of  time; 
but  we  must  first  labor  to  remove  the  rubbish  which 
conceals  them,  and  then  study  to  decipher  them. 
This  is  a  tempting  field  of  research,  as  it  may  not 
only  add  to  our  stock  of  information,  but  also  to  our 
store  of  worldly  wealtli.     The  great  Appalachian 
chain  of  mountains,  which  traverses  the  United 
States  from  Maine  to  Alabama,  is  broader  no  where 
than  in  V  irginia,  or  consists  of  a  greater  number  of 
distinct  ridges,  and  no  where  has  it  given  as  clear 
indications  of  abounding  in  mineral  wealth.     We 
have  found  in  it  already  gold,  copper,  lead,  iron, 
manganese,  gypsum,  salt,  coal,  nitre,  alum,  mar- 
ble in  great  variety ,  besides  other  minerals  that  are 
useful  in  the  arts ;  and  a  more  diligent  and  scientific 
search  than  has  yet  been  made,  may  by  increas- 
ing their  number  increase  the  profit  of  those  canals 
and  roads  that  are  now  projected,  and  give  rise  to 
others  not  yet  contemplated.  Our  demand  for  fossil 
coal  is  of  growing  im|K)rtance ;  for  our  increasing 
population  at  once  increases  the  demand  for  luel, 
and  diminishes  the  supply  of  wood.     I  was  happy 
to  see  last  evening,  the  specimen  of  anthracite  coal 
from  the  county  of  Augusta  ;  and  the  value  of  that 
mineral  deserved  the  hi  gh  eulogy  it  received.    We 
may  form  some  idea  of  the  importance  of  fossil  coal, 
from  the  fact  that  steam  engines  in  England  are 
now  computed  to  perform  annually,  the  work  of 
four  hundred  millions  of  men!  a  number  nearly 
double  to  that  now  living  on  the  whole  globe. 

Nor  is  the  geology  of  the   state  to  be  disre- 
crjirded.     Ever  since  a  careful  examination  of  tho 
materials  of  the  earth's   surface  has  been  found 
to  afford    indications  of   iu   past   changes,  this 
science  lias  l)een  diligently  and  successfully  culti- 
vated in  Europe,  and  has  not  been  neglected  in 
some  parts  of  the  United  States.     It  is  high  time 
that  Virginia  should  contribute  her  quota  to  its  re- 
searches.    We  should  be  the  more  stimulated  to 
cultivate  this  branch  of  science  in  the  United 
States,  in  consequence  of  the  remarkable  regu- 
larity of  the  different  formations  on  this  continent. 
Thus  along  the  coast  below  the  falls,  we  have 
south  of  Long  Island  the  tertiary  formation ;  be- 
tween  the  falls  and  the  Blue  Ridge,  the  primi- 
tive; and  the  great  Mississippi  Valley,  from  the 
Alleghany  to  the  Rocky  Mountains,  is  principally 
secondary.     There  are  however,  occasional  ex- 
ceptions to  these  general  rules,  and  they  should 
be  noticed  with  care.     As  our  useful  minerals  lie 
near  the  surface,  our  observations  will,  for  a  long 
lime  to  come,  be  principally  confined  to  that ;  but  as 
there  are  instances  of  shafts  being  sunk  in  search  of 
salt  water  or  gold,  the  strata  should  be  carefully 
noted ;  and  where  any  pit  of  unusual  depth  is  sunk. 


it  would  be  well   to  make  experiments  on   the 
jheat  of  the  earth,  before  the  admission  of  the  or- 
dinary  air  has  altered  its  temperature.     It  has 
bng  been  asserted  that  there  was  an  internal  heat 
\m  the  interior  of  the  earth,  and  further  observation 
seems  to  confirm  it.     This  fact  has  lately  had  a 
seemingly  conclusive  verification  in  England.    A 
[sliaft  had  been  sunk  there  in  pursuit  of  coal,  to  the 
lextraordinary  depth  of  nearly  fifteen  hundred  feet ; 
[md  by  a  number  of  careful  experiments,  the  heat 
It  the  bottom  was  found  to  be  28°  hotter  than 
the  average  heat  of  the  earth   in   this  latitude, 
R  hich  would  seem  to  show  an  increase  at  the  rate 
U  a  degree  of  Fahrenheit  for  every  sixty  feet.* 
Should  this  correctly  indicate  the  measure  of  the 
earth's  internal  heat,  then  at  the  depth  of  some- 
thing less  than  two  miles,  we  should  come  to  the 
lemperature  of  boiling  water.     When  we  recol- 
lect that  this  heat  is  not  farther  removed  from  us 
[than  a  two  thousandth  part  of  the  distance  to  the 
centre,  (bearing  about  the  same  proportion  to  the 
learth  as  the  parchment  stretched  over  it,  does  to  an 
ordinary  globe,)  it  seems  to  afford  a  ready  solution 
for  volcanoes,  earthquakes,  and  many  geological 
jihenoraena ;  and  may  even  excite  our  wonder,  that 
[>ome  of  these  results  of  so  miglity  an  agent  are 
pot  more  frequent  and  terrible  than  they  are.  And 
jthen  we  recollect  that  the  confines  between  orga- 
laized  matter,  and  that  form  of  it  which  is  incon- 
histent  with  animal  or  vegetable  life,  approach  so 


'  See  London  and  Edinburgh  Philosophical  Magazine  for 

iDifceraber  1834.    This  experiment  coincides  with  the  theory  re- 

|iirding  the  internal  heat  of  the  earth,  promulgated  by  a  member 

«lhe  French  Institute  (Mons.  Cordier,)  in  a  memoir  presented 

Jothat  association  about  six  years  since,  in  which  he  gives  a  de- 

*il  of  numerous  observations  and  experiments  on  which  he 

bunded  his  theory,  now  fully  confirmed  by  the  more  decisive 

lexiMjrunent  in  England. 


near  each  other,  it  is  calculated  to  humble  the 
pride  of  man,  that  he  has  been  upon  this  globe  all 
but  six  thousand  years  without  a  suspicion  of  the 
fact. 

There  are  also  problems  concerning  our  cli- 
mate which  well  deserve  solution.  The  acknow- 
ledged difference  between  the  eastern  and  western 
coasts  of  climates,  has  been  attributed,  with  a 
great  show  of  reason,  to  the  prevalence  of  the 
westerly  winds;  and  of  the  fact  of  their  greater 
prevalence^  there/ is  the  most  satisfactory  general  ) 
evidence-4)ut  it  is  discreditable  that  the  amount 
of  the  difference  should  not  be  as  well  ascertained 
as  the  fiict  itself.  The  average  difference  can  be 
ascertained  only  by  repeated  and  accurate  obser- 
vations. 

It  has  also  been  asserted  that  the  temperature  of 
the  Mississippi  Valley  is  higher  than  that  of  the  At- 
lantic coast.  Mr.  Jefferson  long  ago  advanced  this 
opinion,  and  it  was  adopted  by  Volney  ;  but  there  is 
strong  reason  to  believe  that  the  direct  contrary  is 
the  fact.  It  is,  however,  high  time  that  this  ques- 
tion should  be  settled  by  a  series  of  thermomelri- 
cal  observations,  and  a  comparison  of  facts  de- 
rived from  the  vegetable  world. 

We  have,  Mr.  President,  been  three  years  in 
existence,  and  as  yet  have  done  little.  Let  us  be- 
stir ourselves  in  the  cause  of  science  and  of  our 
country ;  and  endeavor,  under  some  disadvantages, 
to  give  Virginia  the  same  rank  in  science  and  lite- 
rature that  she  has  always  maintained  in  her  devo- 
tion to  civil  liberty  and  political  integrity.  Though 
borne  along  with  the  rest  of  the  world,  by  the 
great  current  of  philosophy  of  which  I  have  been 
speaking,  we  should  not  fold  our  arms  in  listless 
apathy,  but  diligently  ply  our  oars,  lest  we  should 
be  left  further  behind  by  those  in  advance  of  us, 
and  be  overtaken  by  those  now  in  our  rear. 


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